News

Nearly 3% of Minnesota crop acres in Prevent Plant

Minnesota farmers were unable to plant about 500,000 acres this year.

Farm Service Agency state director Whitney Place says about 2.8 percent of the total planted acreage went into Prevented Planting.

“And I will say that at the beginning of the year when we were seeing all of that standing water and people not being able to get in, we thought that the Prevented Plant acres were going to be a lot bigger and a lot worse than they actually turned out to be. I know that’s not a good statement for farmers who still had to do it.”

She tells Brownfield there were a lot of prevent plant acres in northern Minnesota, especially along the Red River Valley.

“However, we saw it all over the place. So just like we’re hearing crop reports now about our rain being really spotty, I think that is true this spring with Prevented Plant as well.”

USDA says more than six million acres went into Prevented Planting nationwide.