News

Southeast Minnesota farmer calls yields good, “not great”

A southeast Minnesota farm family is nearing the finish line on harvest.

Brennen Toquam of Blooming Prairie says it’s been a good fall.

“Really good, honestly. We had a few rain delays in there, but got started on time (and) equipment has held together pretty well. And those rain delays are frustrating at times, but nice at times to kind of help you reset and recharge your batteries if you will.”

Speaking to Brownfield while harvesting the last few hundred acres of corn Wednesday, he said yields are good but not great.

“We were hoping for kind of a great year, and maybe that’s just because we’re coming off two years (like in) ’23 we were extremely dry and in ’24 we were extremely wet. We thought maybe we finally hit somewhere in the middle.”

But Toquam says excessive rain in June, a hot, dry August, and disease pressure held back corn and soybean yields.