I saw an article in the West Central Tribune talking about local progress in the harvest. The article, written by Gretchen Schlosser, included a couple quotes from Wes Nelson, who is the executive director of the Farm Service Agency in Kandiyohi County. He said that "Yield reports on the early planted soybeans are in the 40- to 45-bushel range." Other areas to the west are reporting slightly lower yields.
Larry Konsterlie, my friend and colleague on the Kandiyohi County Corn Growers Association, also got quoted in the article. Like me, he's guessing this year will not match last year's success. "“We aren’t going to have the binbuster we had last year,” Konsterlie said. “Considering the year we had, I’ll take it.” The article goes on to say that "Konsterlie has not begun to harvest corn but has heard reports of 150- to 200-bushel yields, with the moisture content of the corn crop dropping daily with the warm temperatures and windy weather."
Finally, the article talks briefly about the sugar beet harvest. Because of the late start we got this spring, we've seen that the beets are going to be smaller than normal. According to Schlosser's article, "sugar beet yields are also variable, with producers reporting good yields from some fields, but also fields yielding less than 10 tons of beets per acre. Because planting was delayed by the wet spring, it will likely be a very disappointing year overall for the beet crop, Nelson said."
I hope that the weather cools down so that we can start the harvest. If yields remain average or above average, farm land values will at least hold steady or continue increasing. If you are interested in selling some farm land to make the most of a good ag market, please call me at 320-894-7528.
Have a good week!
Noah Hultgren
noah@farmlandman.com
320-894-7528
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