Be careful what you wish for is what I was thinking last Saturday when I was out to the farm. It had not rained for 10 days or so. The crops were not under moisture stress but with the peas flowering and corn tasselling soon I thought an inch of rain would be great. There was a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms with some heavy later on Sunday so I was hoping for an INCH of rain.

Late Sunday afternoon I saw the thunderstorms develop along the Minnesota-South Dakota boarder. I watched their path Sunday evening and thought great, it looks like the farm will get some rain. Monday morning I was getting rain gauge reports from around Faribault of about 1.25 inches. I have my farm signed up for Farmlogs so I can check the computer and get an idea of how much rain I received at the farm.

I was stunned early Monday morning when I saw the computer said I got 4.25 inches of rain at all the farms! I also heard about wind and hail damage by Lake Crystal and Mankato. I assumed I was in the path of that storm. Monday afternoon I went out to check the crops. On the positive side there was no hail damage. Some of the sweet corn was blown over but it should straighten back up. I have two rain gauges at the farm and they both had 5 inches in them!

You can see from the soil on the beans how high the water had been in this area of the field. You can also see that  the water had receded a lot in just 12 hours. However I am sure I had a few acres of beans and peas that will be killed by the standing water. Trying to look at the positive side, even if I lose a few acres I will take 5 inches of rain over no rain at all. If I could control the weather I would have gotten just an inch!

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