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Diversified farmer anxious to get going in west-central Minnesota

A west-central Minnesota farmer is anxious to get the 2021 growing season underway.

Noah Hultgren of Raymond says they’ll begin by picking rocks in the coming days.

“And then on most of our ground we will run across it with a field cultivator to level the ground out (and) smooth it off, work fertilizer in.”

The sugarbeet, corn, soybean, edible bean, alfalfa, and vegetable crop farmer tells Brownfield at that point they should be able to begin planting on their irrigated, lighter soils.

“Those are normally the spots that we’re able start and get in (while) our heavy ground is still wet.”

And the beets get priority, Hultgren says.

“The planting date for sugarbeets, not going to say that every crop is not important, but there’s a very high statistical advantage to getting the crop in the ground as soon as possible.”

He says the goal is to get all the sugarbeets planted by the beginning of May.