(Lakefield, Mn.)– Area farmers made excellent progress over the past week when it comes to spring planting. Jim Nesseth of Extended Ag Services in Lakefield says most of the corn is now in the ground…
“I’m estimating we probably have 90 to 95 percent of the corn in the ground in our area and soybeans are right behind that. I think there’s probably 75 percent to 80 percent of the soybeans planted. There’s a lot of producers that are done and some that have a fair amount to go, but it’s been really great planting progress and really nice planting conditions.”
Nesseth says now it’s a matter of getting some warmer weather to stick around for awhile…
“It takes about 22 days to get a seed to germinate at 55 degrees fahrenheit and I’ve gotten several calls, you know, wondering about if this corn is ever going to come up, you know some of this earlier planted corn. I did talk to a producer over in Nobles county that planted some corn April 5th and he said that corn started to come up, it’s finally starting to emerge. It’s been in the ground, you know, for about a month and but it’s coming up nicely and what hasn’t emerged is really close to popping through, so that’s good news.”
Nesseth says the warmth over the weekend did help boost soil temperatures.
He says some moisture is also badly needed, even though some areas of southwest Minnesota did get some measurable rainfall in the past week.
