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Harvest begins in pockets across southwest Minnesota

A southwest Minnesota farmer says early harvest activity is underway.

Bryan Biegler of Lake Wilson tells Brownfield most crops in the area are still a week or more away from being ready.

“We have had some people in the neighborhood taking out a little bit of beans, and had a neighbor actually trying a little bit of earlier corn the other day. But I’d say the majority within a week, a lot of guys are going to get going on things.”

USDA’s latest weekly crop progress report shows soybean harvest just underway with one percent complete in Minnesota.  Nearly half the state’s corn crop has reached maturity.

Biegler says rain the past two to three weeks has brightened his outlook.

“So it’s kind of helped maintain our yield. From what I’m hearing and from how things look, I think we should be getting in that 50 area on beans. And corn should be guessing that 200 to 210, 215 area.”

The USDA says sugarbeet harvest is 10 percent complete in Minnesota, compared to 7 percent normally.  And the spring wheat harvest is wrapping up.