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Michigan farmer seeing crops bounce back

A Michigan farmer says he’s been surprised by how well his crops have bounced back from a rough start to the growing season.

Christopher Ziehm grows soybeans, sugar beets, corn, dry beans and white wheat in the western Thumb.

“It was dry until real late in March, and then in April we did not get back in the fields until the third week of April.”

He tells Brownfield spring conditions were wet, cool and windy, forcing sugar beet replanting and stretching out soybean planting into June.

“Then at the end of June we had some really bad rains.  In one storm event we had over six inches of rain and had to do some replanting of soybeans and dry beans after that.  But since then the weather has shaped up (and) been good.  We’ve gotten timely rains and stuff.  Getting a little dry right now, but things look pretty good.”

He says expectations are for average to above average yields this fall.

Brownfield interviewed Ziehm during a United Soybean Board See for Yourself tour stop at the John Deere tractor cab assembly plant in Waterloo, Iowa earlier this week.