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Minnesota farmer hopes to “plant green” despite growing moisture deficit

A worsening moisture deficit concerns a no-till farmer in south-central Minnesota.

Rochelle Krusemark grows corn, soybeans, and sorghum in Martin County and says cover crops suffered from dry conditions last fall.

“The best growth we got was from the triticale that we seeded right after we chopped the sorghum for the cow feed because it was a little earlier and we got a little shot of rain about a week and a half after we seeded it. So that grew a little bit.”

She tells Brownfield there hasn’t been much snow cover this winter.

“It’s too early to go look and determine now, but last fall when I looked there was some of the seed that had germinated and died because of the lack of moisture. And some of (the seed) was just laying there yet.”

Krusemark says she hopes to “plant green” this spring but it will take a lot of moisture.

The latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows much of southern Minnesota in moderate drought.