AM Minnesota Today 2018 Growing Season

The 2018 growing season will be the topic on today's AM Minnesota Program. My guest will be Tom Hoverstad scientist at the Southern Research and Outreach Center at Waseca. For many farmers they are relieved to see the 2018 growing season over. It was a challenge right from spring until the end of harvest. Plus, with all the rain and cold temperatures it will be difficult to get primary tillage done as we prepare for 2018.

Remember last spring we saw very frequent rains so much of the corn was planted a couple weeks later that normal. We were fortunate that the summer turned out to be warmer than normal so there were no concerns about the corn reaching black layer. For many farmers the frequent and sometimes heavy rains made it tough to get herbicides applied.

Then there were the sever thunderstorms and tornadoes that hit our area blowing down the corn. In addition for some there were truckloads of debris that had to be picked up from the fields. Our normal annual rainfall is about 30 inches and my farm received 44 inches during the growing season. Lets hope the 2019 growing season presents fewer challenges then 2018!.