Late storms slow area farmers

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Thursday, May 1, 2008

In a perfect world, local farmers Mike and John Haarstad would have all their corn planted in the ground.

But the world isn’t perfect, and instead the Calisle men are looking at snow on their land.

A week ago the Haarstads began planting corn in their field. What they hoped would be the start of seven to 10 days of corn planting came to an abrupt halt two days later on Friday, April 25.

That’s when Old Man Winter started dumping what would become over a foot of snow.

On Tuesday the Haarstads, sitting at the kitchen table in Mike’s house, talked about their fields north of Carlisle, a hopeful quick thaw and the resumption of corn planting — followed by soybean planting.

The USDA said that in Minnesota less than 10 percent of the corn crop is in the ground. In many areas — including Otter Tail County — it’s below five percent, far less than the 35 percent average from the last five years.

The weather is slowing what could be one the most profitable corn crops in recent years

Corn prices have been soaring due to heavy demand in the United States to make ethanol while the growing economies of the developing world are buying more of it for animal feed and other uses.

But farmers like the Haarstads prefere snow cover over cold.

“These days, during cold weather, it’s actually better to have snow covering the fields,” John Haarstad said. “The snow reflects the heat and insulates the ground. On the uncovered areas, however, a freeze into the ground could damage the corn seeds. We won’t know the extent of any damage until the sprouting process begins.”

As of Tuesday the problems were the cold nights. The Haarstads looked forward to warmer days, getting rid of the remaining snow, and returning to the fields for corn planting.

“When we do get back into the fields, it may be a slower process due to more potholes,” Mike Haarstad said. “Even so, we might be able to finish the corn planting in six or seven days, if all goes well.”

One thing they’re hoping for is not having to retill the soil — the agricultural preparation of the soil by digging it up in preparation for planting.

About half of their fields will be planted with corn and the other half with soybeans. Later in the year they will haul the corn to the nearby ethanol plant northwest of Fergus Falls.

The weather is affecting other crops as well.

The USDA said the state's oat farmers usually have 49 percent of their crop planted by April 27, but as of Sunday just 9 percent of the crop was in the ground. It said land prepared for soybeans was 1 percent complete compared to a 10 percent five-year average.

On a normal year, there would be squads of sugarbeet farmers working their fields in the Red River Valley. They would usually have 50 percent to 75 percent of their crop planted by now, but the planting now stands at about 5 percent.

"It's an uphill battle for us at this point to get our acres in," Jeff Schweitzer, spokesman for American Crystal Sugar Company in Moorhead told the Associated Press.

He said the sugarbeet growers intend to plant 414,000 acres this year, but just 20,000 are done.

Thursday’s weather forecast for Otter Tail County calls for a high of 52 degrees with a 40 percent chance of rainfall. The National Weather Service Office in Grand Forks said it will be breezy with a east wind between 15 and 22 miles per hour, with gusts as high as 29 mph.

The forecast for Thursday evening calls for rain with a possible mix of snow. The low may reach 35 degrees. A mix of rain and snow also is predicted for Friday and Saturday.