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Northwest Minnesota farmer keeps planting plans flexible

The planting plan is fluid for a northwest Minnesota farmer this spring.

Jake Thompson of Barnesville tells Brownfield he’s monitoring soil temperature and weather forecasts.

“We do grow some small grains (and) are going to be producing some oats to go down to that new Albert Lea processing facility. So that’s something we want to get in the ground with adequate moisture because that’s an early crop, and the earlier we can get those in the better yield potential we’ll have.”

Thompson planted about a third of his corn acres last spring before switching to soybeans.

“Then put all the beans in and then finished corn. I don’t know if we’ll be doing that (again) or not, we did get dinged a little bit with some frost on those beans last year and it ultimately had an affect on our yields. So I don’t know, it’s really going to depend on whatever field conditions are right to go work in, that’s probably the one we’ll go work in and just adjust accordingly.”

He says rising fertilizer prices won’t influence his planting decisions since most of his fertilizer has already been applied.