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Mixed bag for Minnesota farmer beginning soybean harvest

Early harvest results are a mixed bag for southeast Minnesota soybean grower Darin Johnson.

“Just got a couple hundred acres out, extremely variable. We’re still kind of cutting around a lot of drowned outs, so there’s still a lot of slough holes and all the kind of perimeter fringe areas of all those slough holes are all still fairly green yet.”

The Faribault County farmer tells Brownfield soybean yields are good in spots.

“Just depending on elevation in that field, drainage, there are a lot of variables this year that are going to impact yield. But once we factor back in our drowned out spots, we’re probably going to (have) one of our lowest soybean yields that we’ve had in probably 15 years.”

Johnson, who serves as president of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association, says he expects corn yields to be 40 to 50 bushels per acre below last year.