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Soybean planting wraps up in Minnesota

Warm and dry weather last week allowed Minnesota farmers to finish planting as heat advanced crop development.

The USDA says with nearly all of the state’s corn acreage now emerged, soybean planting reached 99 percent complete as of Sunday.

The condition of both crops remains above the national average, with 78 percent of corn and soybeans in the good to excellent category.

With planting behind him, west-central Minnesota farmer Chad Willis says it was a challenging spring.

“We had a lot of rain last fall in August, like a 10 inch rain in this area.  That made conditions wet this spring.  There was some corn that went in the ground when it was still fairly cool, and that corn survived the cool soil temperatures and looks pretty good.”

The Willmar farmer waited until after the cold snap to begin planting, and says his corn looks decent.

Fields are beginning to dry out statewide, with topsoil moisture supplies rated short to very short up to nearly 20 percent.