By Scout Nelson
This past week, the season greeted us with its first snowfall, accompanied by scattered rain and hail, allowing for 3.9 productive days in the fields. The farmers and agricultural workers engaged in various tasks, including manure and chemical applications, harvest, and fall tillage. Meanwhile, livestock thrived, reporting no complications.
Examining soil conditions, topsoil moisture was balanced, with 10% being very short, 22% short, 63% adequate, and 5% in surplus. The subsoil moisture mirrored these conditions, with 12% very short, 39% short, 47% adequate, and 2% surplus.
Focusing on crop progress, corn harvested for grain reached 75%, trailing a day behind last year but outpacing the five-year average by five days, with an average moisture content of 18% at harvest.
The soybean harvest was impressive at 94%, lagging six days behind the previous year but surpassing the five-year average by five days.
In the field of specialty crops, potatoes were 96% harvested, sugarbeets achieved a full harvest at 100%, and sunflowers made substantial progress at 74% harvested.
Categories: Minnesota, Crops, Harvesting, Livestock, Weather