2023-11-15 11:31:32
Muddy fields and greasy roads slowed North Dakota and northwest Minnesota farmers working in early November to get their corn and sunflower crops in the bin.
Warmer temperatures during the first two weeks of the month melted most of the snow that fell during
Oct. 25-27
but left fields mucky. Gravel roads, meanwhile, were soft and rutted, and some had holes from heavy machinery driving over them.
In other fields, where the ground was sandier, a few farmers were able to harvest corn.
About 76% of the corn in North Dakota had been harvested as of the week ended Nov. 12, 2023, a 9% increase from the previous week, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Last year 92% of the corn had been harvested by that date, and the five-year average is 72%.
In Cavalier County in northeast North Dakota, where 9.5 inches of snow fell from Oct. 25-27, the ground no longer was white on Nov. 12, but fields were wet, said
Randy Mehlhoff, director of North Dakota State University Langdon Research Extension Center.
Some North Dakota farmers were back in the field harvesting corn in November 2023 following snow that fell during an Oct. 25-27, 2023, storm melted.
Ann Bailey / Agweek
Though the snow was gone, farmers had not been able to get back into the fields to harvest the remaining sunflowers and corn, he said. About half of the corn and sunflowers near Langdon were unharvested when the snowstorm hit in late October.
The 10-day weather outlook is for warm temperatures and no significant precipitation, but fields likely won’t dry enough to support equipment so farmers can harvest their corn and sunflowers, Mehlhoff said.
Instead, they’ll likely wait until temperatures drop below freezing.
In north-central North Dakota, farmers near Minot, North Dakota, were harvesting on Nov. 12, said Leandro Bortolon, NDSU Minot Research Extension Center agronomist.
About 11 inches of snow fell during the Oct. 25-27 storm, but it melted and the moisture soaked in, so the fields were dry enough to combine, Bortolon said.
“There’s a lot of harvesting activity,” he said. “It’s good conditions for harvest.”
Besides corn, there were still a lot of sunflowers left to harvest, Bortolon said.
Fifty-nine percent of North Dakota’s sunflowers were combined as of the week ending Nov. 12, according to USDA. That’s an 11% increase from the previous week, but behind the five-year average of 72%. In 2022, 90% of the state’s sunflowers were harvested as of Nov. 12.
Some North Dakota gravel roads were muddy and rutted following the Oct. 25-27, 2023, snowstorm.
Ann Bailey / Agweek
Besides melting the snow from the fields, the warm temperatures during the first two weeks in November melted the snow off of the sunflower heads, said John Sandbakken, National Sunflower Association executive director.
Despite the heavy October snow, the crop still was in good condition in November.
“It’s amazing how Mother Nature turned things around,” Sandbakken said.
Harvest progress, though, was slow because moisture from the snow left the fields and roads muddy, making it tough for farmers to get their crop in the bin.
“It’s slow going right now,” Sandbakken said on Nov. 12.
The warm temperatures forecast — as high as 55 to 60 degrees — for the week of Nov. 12, 2023, and a few days of windy conditions, should help dry the fields so farmers can finish the harvest.
Meanwhile, late during the week of Nov. 20, temperatures were forecast to fall below seasonable levels, and that should firm up fields that didn’t dry.
In Minnesota, 93% of the corn was harvested as of Nov. 12, 7% more than last week and 5% more than the five-year average, NASS said. The sunflower harvest was 92% complete as of Nov. 12, compared with 84% last week and the five-year average of 86%.
South Dakota farmers had harvested 87% of their corn as of Nov. 12, compared with 95% last year and the five-year average of 78%, NASS said. Sunflowers in South Dakota were 72% harvested, 20% less than 2022, but similar to the five-year average of 71%.
Ann is a journalism veteran with nearly 40 years of reporting and editing experiences on a variety of topics including agriculture and business. Story ideas or questions can be sent to Ann by email at: abailey@agweek.com or phone at: 218-779-8093.
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