BROWNTON, Minnesota — A wet spring forced Minnesota farmers to delay planting crops. Now, growers are worried about the potential for an early frost and what that would mean for their crops.
"Both the corn and soybeans we would've liked to have in the ground two weeks prior to the time that we did get them in the ground. So yeah, planting was a bit late," said Mark Sanken of Sanken Farms in Brownton.
Because of late planting and cooler temperatures in August, Sanken said their harvest will also be delayed by about two weeks.
"Everyone's concerned about frost," Sanken said. "If we get a frost in the next two weeks, it'd really be bad. The corn just isn't ready for it nor are the beans. We need 30 days before it freezes. If we get a frost within the next two weeks, it would be just about a complete train wreck. If it's prior to a month from now, we'll probably have poor quality grain and wet grain at harvest."
According to Mark Schultz, chief analyst of Northstar Commodity, the wet weather earlier this year led to Minnesota farmers leaving about 1.17 million acres of farmland idle. That's compared to nearly 60,000 a year ago.
Farmers were also forced to plant 25% of this year's corn crop after June 1; on a normal year, only 2% of the corn is planted this late. Meanwhile, 50% of soybeans in the state were planted after June 1 compared to 10% planted that late during a normal year.
Schultz added, "Overall farmers in Minnesota will likely experience a long drawn out corn and soybean harvest. In addition the overall yield will likely be down from a year ago, and there will be an added cost to harvest this year's crop."
Sanken said he's hopeful temperatures will get back in the 80s and that the frost will hold off.
KARE 11 Meteorologist Belinda Jensen said looking ahead for the month of September, Minnesota is looking at below average temperatures and above average precipitation. Frost is not expected in the next 10 days but in northern Minnesota, there could be a frost in mid-September.
According to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, 84% of the corn crop has reached the dough stage, falling to 11 days behind last year and 9 days behind the 5-year average. Corn dented was 25 percent, nearly two weeks behind last year and 10 days behind normal.
"This is pretty unique. Normally by this time of year we're nearing the point of being safe from frost. I do remember a year, I believe it was 1974, we had a frost early in September and the crop that year was a disaster," Sanken said. "There are some years where we're concerned about frost but not nearly as much as we are this year. This year the crop is really behind."