MINNESOTA, USA — Editor's Note: The video above originally aired on KARE 11 on April 29, 2022.
After weeks of cloudy skies and cool temperatures, it's finally starting to feel like spring, which is good news for Minnesota farmers who are eager to get their crops in the ground.
The United States Department of Agriculture crop report for Minnesota comes out each Monday. According to the May 2 report, there was less than 1% of corn and soybean plants in the ground, compared to 71% of corn and 23% of beans that were planted this week of last year. The five-year average is 32% corn and 9% beans by this point in the season, so we really went from one extreme to the other.
Farmers will be working around the clock to get crops in the ground this weekend, before rain is forecast to move in again next week.
The planting season is off to a later start because of the colder and wet April weather. But the upside to that is the soil moisture conditions are much better than they were at this time last year.
Only 7% of topsoil and 16% of subsoil moisture is in the short or very short category this year. That's compared to 35% of both topsoil and subsoil moisture in the short or very short category at this time last season.
With a warm and dry summer forecast from the Climate Prediction Center, the month of April could be a blessing in disguise.
To all our Minnesota farms, happy planting!
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