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Renewed fears of too much moisture

A southwest Minnesota farmer who replanted corn four times last year says he and other area growers are concerned about high soil moisture levels this spring.

Matt Widboom of Worthington tells Brownfield 2016 will be remembered for the 25 inches of rain that fell between mid-April and the end of June.

“And last year, we started dry and then became wet.  And now we are wet, and don’t have room to hold much more (water).”

He says many farmers approached the cool and wet start to this growing season with last year fresh in their minds.

“I think that really got a lot of people out planting when the window might’ve been marginal this year, because they were not going to be in the position (like last year) where they were hesitant and it was costly because nothing got in the ground.”

Going into last weekend, Widboom was nearing completion on corn planting and had finished seeding alfalfa.

As of Sunday, 91 percent of Minnesota topsoil and 98 percent of the subsoil moisture was rated adequate to surplus.