Rain Gauge Reports
The last thing farmers needed Friday and Saturday night was more rain, but I guess it could have been worse. Earlier in the week some forecasts were calling for 3 to 5 inches of rain. I had rain gauge reports from the Faribault area of 2.2 to 2.5 inches over the weekend. I was not out to the farm today but my computer said about 1.5 inches over the weekend at the farm by Wells.
There are some parts of our listening area where the corn is pretty well all planted and most of the beans. Many times you do not have to drive very far and there are no beans and a lot of corn that is not planted. Looking at the forecast for this week, it does not look like we will be in the field this week either. That means that by the time we get back into the field it is likely too late to plant full season corn hybrids. Ffarmers will have to shift to shorter season hybrids.
This is a tough time for farmers. It seems like everything is going against us. This is the fifth year in a row of low prices, farmers seem to be the only ones hit by the trade war and now even the weather. As one farmer said to me this afternoon, "it is one thing to deal with low prices, but now it is even tougher when I cannot even plant a crop."