News

Rally alters rotation of Minnesota farmer

A Minnesota farmer tells Brownfield the rally in grain prices that began last August will influence his crop rotation this year.

Noah Hultgren grows corn, soybeans, sugarbeets, edible beans, alfalfa, canning crops, and raises beef cattle near Raymond in the west-central part of the state.

“We stayed pretty close to what the original plans were (but) did change a little bit (to) more acreage of soybeans based on where commodity prices have gone.”

He tells Brownfield it’s easy to second-guess when the market is as strong as it’s been in nearly a decade.

“At times when we look at the Board of Trade prices and think ‘can they actually keep going up?’ It does make you think sometimes of maybe changing the plan.”

Hultgren says another reason it’s difficult to deviate too much from the usual rotation is because a lot of input decisions were made months ago.