Rainfall amount make county outlook complicated
By Jerry W. Kram
How crops are doing in Mountrail County depends on who you ask and where you’re looking, says Mountrial County Agent Jim Hennessy.
Rainfall amounts over the last few weeks have varied from more than four inches in the northern reaches of the county just a tenth of an inch for some spots south of New Town.
"We have some parts that have had just a trace and other parts that have had way too much," said Hennessy. "For the most part you have a happy medium, but you get up in the Coulee area (south of Kenmare) they have almost five inches. Some of those guys just got done seeding, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them just gave up. Then south of New Town some of those guys just got ten-hundreths."
The last storm to pass through the county last week varied from 1.8 inches to almost nothing, he noted.
In the southern part of the county, things have gone much more smoothly, Hennessy said. Planting was nearly over in the band from Parshall to New Town before some in the north could even get started. Late snow and cool weather kept the soil up north from warming up to the point where farmers could safely plant their crops. Hennessy said he knows of a few places where farmers have fields with bare patches where seed couldn’t sprout and just rotted away.
"Crops are all over the board," Hennessy said. "Some farmers could still use some rain and others really need the sun and some heat to get the crops going."
