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West-central Minnesota crops look “remarkably good”

A seed account manager says crops in west-central Minnesota look remarkably good.

Craig LaVoi with Peterson Farms Seed tells Brownfield it was a challenging planting season with a wide array of situations and conditions following a cold, late start.

“Thankfully the weather did turn in May and we had a chance to get going.  But there were a lot of pockets that were very wet, and guys were really struggling into June to get the last of those beans in.  While on the northern end of my territory, they were actually on the drier side.”

USDA rates 88 percent of the Minnesota corn crop and 83 percent of the soybean crop in good to excellent condition.

LaVoi is encouraging growers to be on the lookout for yield-robbing threats, especially in bean fields.

“In those areas where white mold is problematic, that’s going to be creeping it’s ugly head here probably within a couple weeks (so) farmers will want to consider fungicide applications to fend that off.  With the moisture we have, it sure looks like that could be a problem this year.”

LaVoi is also watching for signs of phytophthora root rot and other soil-borne diseases.

And in a few weeks, he says soybean aphids could start appearing.