News

Weeks of rain result in crop variability across southern Minnesota

There’s a lot of variability in Minnesota corn and soybean fields following two months of heavy rains.

University of Minnesota Extension crops educator Dave Nicolai says farmers are having to make difficult decisions.

“In some cases they might be replanting soybeans in some situations, which continued even past the Fourth of July in areas. But also from a corn perspective, with supplemental nitrogen (and) whether or not it was needed. There was some of that applied as well.”

He tells Brownfield the soil moisture recharge is a positive after several years of drought.

“But people are going to be concerned about the variability and how that impacts the economics as well.”

Nicolai says growers could struggle to determine how much to invest in this year’s crop given the excess moisture has likely limited top-end yield.