Producers Blog

Brian Kohlenberg (DSM, Region 1 – South Dakota)

It’s been another “different kind of year”.  Farming always sees its share of challenges, but this year they just seem to have stacked up.  In Northeast South Dakota, we saw a late spring snow melt and when the snow did disappear, field conditions shaped up nicely for about a May 5th start to corn planting.  Farmers had about a 9 day window to get their corn planted, fertilizer down and pre-emergence chemical applied.  Then the rains came, which at first were welcomed with open arms as soil conditions were dry and uneven emergence was being noted in corn stands.  The next 8 weeks were wet and only small planting windows existed to get soybeans in and other field work done.  Just as everything pretty much got wrapped up, the state saw a major storm system move through that brought a pretty wide swath of hail. For some, that meant replanting soybeans and hoping the corn could recover some.

Overall we are behind, but things are starting to look good. The earliest planted corn will be over waist high by July 4th.  It looks like the forecast is good for the next ten days so some side dressing and finishing spraying will be the major focus this week.  Like they say, if you don’t like the weather in South Dakota today, just wait an hour, it’ll change.