| ||||
|
|
Rain no friend to Minnesota farmers
"I've given up," Olson said. "I'm hoping it freezes and stays cold. If we get snow, the soybeans are gone. This is just totally unprecedented. What's strange is that we got the crop in rather early. I was done with the crop the first week of May. I can't look back. There's nothing I could have done. The beans still had leaves when it started to rain. I would have been better off had I not turned a wheel."
OMAHA (DTN)--An employee of the Frisch farm operating a combine about 10 miles north of Ortonville Nov. 1 was forced to stop after breaking a large belt in the machine. He pushed back through the mud to a ditch on the southern edge of the field where valuable time was lost when he stopped to make repairs.
Deep muddy ruts near the ditch mark where the combine barreled along, with a $64,000 pair of combine tracks on the front and large-knobbed rice field tires on the back.
The combine operator paused while replacing the belt to talk about the ever-imposing weather.
"The five-day forecast looks dry, but it doesn't mean a thing," he said.
This is a common sight along county roads and highways near Ortonville, Minn., where combine tracks dead end in partially harvested fields.
Farmers backed out when their combines began to sink along with their spirits. Promising corn and soybean crops have been snuffed out by mud on the southern edge of the Red River Valley while most U.S. farmers have wrapped up a record 11.6 billion bushel corn crop.
Farmers are on edge after weeks of untimely rain.
"I won't go to a coffee shop," said Gary Hoffman, manager of Titan Machinery in Graceville, Minn., a dealer that provides equipment to many farmers in the area. "Just go there at 6 or 6:30 a.m. and it will ruin your day. I try to tell them don't let it get you down so bad to where it affects your mental health. It's not worth it."
About 5 inches of rain fell on one September day, followed by weeks of daily rains. Another 2-inch rain was recorded in late October. A typical season of rainfall is about 22 inches, said Ortonville farmer Brent Olson.
Rain gauges have been put away, because farmers can't stand to watch their year's paycheck wash away.
DTN Meteorologist Bryce Anderson said rainfall totals for the area in September and October were above normal. Fergus Falls to the north of Ortonville recorded 12.88 inches of rain for both months, which was 8.67 inches above normal. To the east in Willmar, rainfall totals were about 4.5 inches above normal.
"I've given up," Olson said. "I'm hoping it freezes and stays cold. If we get snow, the soybeans are gone. This is just totally unprecedented. What's strange is that we got the crop in rather early. I was done with the crop the first week of May. I can't look back. There's nothing I could have done. The beans still had leaves when it started to rain. I would have been better off had I not turned a wheel."
A lot of the fields near Ortonville, Graceville, Clinton and Wheaton are still awaiting harvest. Olson said soybeans are the biggest concern because they sit so close to the ground.
The rains have sent farmers scrambling for combine tracks, four-track systems for grain carts and rear-wheel assist units. Titan salesman Vic Hoffman said the company has sold 25 rear-wheel units at about $12,000 each.
Farmers are doing what they can, he said, including one man who used three tractors to pull a combine from a field. Others are already looking ahead to next year.
"Some farmers went to hunt elk in Wyoming," he said. "They said 'the hell with it, it's too depressing.'"
Just north of Ortonville about 40 miles east of the South Dakota border, Dean Frisch of Wheaton, Minn., who, with his family, farms about 7,000 acres in this rain-soaked region, tore up his fields to finish harvesting corn.
"We had beans ready to combine Sept. 20," he said. "It's just a slower process than we're used to. We're used to doing 200 acres a day and we've been doing about 40 or 50 with twice as much work. It's going to take maybe three years to get this field back in shape."
The trick to harvesting in the mud, Olson said, is to concentrate on keeping the combine moving in a straight path despite slipping and sliding--and avoid getting stuck.
"Usually in my fields I know the spots to avoid," he said. "Now I've found myself getting into trouble in spots I never would have imagined."
But the falling rains have led to more than just sadness. Anger is something not in short supply in the area.
Farmers have come to Hoffman desperately looking for help, including more than half of Titan's 600 customers, he said. Many of them have reported that 80 percent of their crops are not harvested.
From 20 to 50 calls come in daily from farmers who can't work in their fields. Some are rational while some are less-than-cordial
"You can't joke right now," Gary Hoffman said. "I've seen people fly off the handle who normally wouldn't. I had one customer call me back the other day to say he's sorry."
Grain bins at a farmer's cooperative in Dumont north of Ortonville are empty and combines used by the co-op sit in storage near a garage across the highway.
Farmers who harvested parts of their fields have been blocking traffic by parking tractor-trailers alongside Big Stone County Road 10 between Ortonville and Graceville. Because semis are too heavy to drive into the fields, Olson said, many farmers have been parking on those roads despite county weight limits.
"You hear the urban legends that some farmers have been ticketed," he said. "But I would hope, under the circumstances, that they would be given a break."
Though time is running short with an upcoming Dec. 10 crop deadline, Frisch said, he's hopeful he can harvest about 75 percent of his crops and rely on insurance to cover any losses.
"I have bean contracts that are already late," he said. "And now they've socked us for another 6 cents per bushel."
But it's not just late crops that farmers need to worry about. Marketing opportunities might also wash away with the rain.
DTN Grains Analyst Darin Newsom said the weather has put area farmers in a dilemma.
Producers who took loans but whose corn is less than 52 pounds test weight are not eligible to lock in a lower posted county price, he said.
But Ortonville crop insurance agent Linda Schmidt said county farmers should have no problem meeting the test weight for corn.
"Test weight is surprising," she said. "I'm not sure it will be a big issue. The rains we had in September actually helped the test weight."
According to information from the Farm Service Agency office in Ortonville, the county corn crop as a whole was about 50 percent harvested as of Nov. 2 while about 10 percent to 15 percent of soybeans were still in the fields. The FSA reports that about 95 percent of county farmers have crop insurance.
Schmidt said crops in the northern part of the county, which includes the towns of Ortonville, Graceville, Clinton and Wheaton, have been hit hardest by the rain.
"The soybeans they're still not able to get at," she said. "And the corn, they are able to do it. It is really tough on the machinery and the equipment, but people have been able to move. It looks like the five- to seven-day outlook is cold and dry. But the problem at this point is that beans start to become moldy. Near Wheaton that is already the case."
Schmidt said she expects farmers will be able to harvest "a good portion of the corn."
County farmers have the advantage of having planted more corn in the area than in previous years, she said. In recent weeks daytime temperatures have dropped into the 40s, but it's still not enough to make the fields passable.
"Harvest is usually exciting for everybody," Olson said. "You're pushing and working hard. The problem with farming is you've got to be careful not to farm for the previous year. Each year is just a fresh slate--you don't know what's coming."
Back in the muddy field north of Ortonville, the Frisch combine is running again, as workers put the tools away in the back of a pickup truck.
The combine turns slightly left and back across the field to the north. The air is cold enough to see your breath as a chilly rain begins to fall.
"Raining again, why not," one worker said to another. "What would we do without rain?"
Date: 11/24/04
Copyright 1995-2008. High Plains Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Any republishing of these pages, including electronic reproduction of the editorial archives or classified advertising, is strictly prohibited. If you have questions or comments you can reach us at High Plains Journal 1500 E. Wyatt Earp Blvd., P.O. Box 760, Dodge City, KS 67801 or call 1-800-452-7171. Email: webmaster@hpj.com
 
| |||||||||||||||||||
