News

Southwest Minnesota farmer expects harvest to begin in 3 weeks

A southwest Minnesota farmer estimates corn and soybean harvest to start in about three weeks.

Mark Enninga of Fulda says rains have been timely this summer.

“It’s almost out of the ordinary to experience that it seems over the last maybe five to eight years.”

He tells Brownfield this year’s crop should be significantly better than a year ago.

“Our last year’s crop we had a lot of drowned out spots early on in the growing season that were established, and basically zero yield there. And then as the growing season developed last year, we basically ran out of moisture.”

Enninga says while consistent rains will help yields, area farmers are seeing high disease pressure.

USDA’s latest weekly crop update for Minnesota shows 61 percent of corn statewide at the dent stage or beyond, compared to the five-year average of 70 percent.  Seventy-three percent of the crop is rated in good to excellent condition.

Soybeans dropping leaves advanced to four percent, 12 percentage points behind normal.  Seventy-five percent of the crop is called good to excellent this week.