MANKATO — It’s good news for Hanska dairy farmer David Tauer, who said his planting season is on time this year.
“Last year, we didn’t start until May 5,” he said. “Drought conditions, they’re excellent, so like I said, it’s the main reason we started when we did.”
Tauer, who grows corn, alfalfa and rye at his farm, Tauer Dairy, did say some rain would be appreciated.
“We’re definitely much drier than we were a year ago, which this time of year it’s OK if you’re on the dry side, but we’re going to need rain sooner than later,” he said.
“Even if we get rain, it’s not going to be a huge factor in when we get back into the field at this point, unless it comes in inches.”
Tauer said an inch of rain a week would be ideal for the remainder of the planting season, which for him typically ends the first week of May.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map, released Thursday, shows there is no drought in Blue Earth or Nicollet counties, while areas in the southwest part of the state, including most of Watonwan County and part of Faribault County, are in an abnormally dry to moderate drought.
Jeff Vetsch, a researcher at the University of Minnesota Southern Research and Outreach Center in Waseca, was in the region working on field work last week.
“Yeah, it is dry. They could use a good half inch to an inch of rain,” he said. “But their moisture down below the surface soil was actually quite good, so it’s more of a topsoil moisture drought.”
Vetsch said drier conditions in the spring are generally better for planting and for field activities.
“The last two or three growing seasons, we’ve had pretty wet, early springs, and the delay for planting was primarily because the fields were too wet. There were some small windows of planting opportunities in mid to late April, but they were relatively sparse to certain areas of the state,” he said.
“Right here in Blue Earth and Waseca counties, we did not see a lot of crop planted last year in particular until May.”
Independent farm management analyst Kent Thiesse, of Lake Crystal, said he’s also seen farmers on schedule this year.
“Some farmers were able to get started last week with some favorable field conditions,” he said. “Some other areas had some rain last week that probably slowed the initiation of planting, but by this week I think in most areas farmers are in full-scale planting, and we’re seeing both corn and soybeans being planted.”
Thiesse said the worst soil conditions for planting are cold, wet soil.
“Fortunately we’ve had some warm weather here. We haven’t had a lot of excessive rain, so overall our soil conditions this spring have been very good,” he said, adding that any rain the region gets would be welcome.
“Because many areas overall look pretty dry, especially the western part of south-central Minnesota into southwest Minnesota has been quite dry.”
In addition to monitoring drought conditions, those in the industry are also paying attention to how tariffs and the conflict in the Middle East are impacting prices.
“A lot of fertilizer comes out of the Middle East, and so we’re seeing a pretty rapid increase in certain fertilizing products,” Thiesse said.
“The tariffs affect fertilizer costs as well, because outside of the Middle East, a lot of fertilizer products come out of countries like Russia and some of the countries in central Europe.”
Tauer said he’s noticed the price changes.
“I have. I didn’t buy much of my fertilizer until spring. It went up pretty significantly. But it’s a little different. Everything we grow we put back into cattle, so it is what it is. If it’s expensive, I gotta buy it,” he said.
“The fuel prices, too. We’re using fuel every day, so we just got to take the highs and take the lows.”