Rain dampens harvest push
Rain dampens harvest push
By Jerry W. Kram
Despite a late and wet spring, most farmers in the southern end of Mountrail County got a crop in and were harvesting decent yields until last weeks rain showers dampened their progress.
Rain showers varied widely across the region. According the North Dakota Ag Weatherr Network, Hofflund, northeast of New Town, received more than three inches of rain between last Wednesday and Monday. Just a few miles away in Ross, the rain totaled about an inch and a half. The weather station in the Plaza area recorded just over three quarters of an inch.
Mountrail County NDSU Extension Agent Jim Hennessy said farmers had been doing pretty well before the rain started. Hennessy added that the hail storms that hit the middle of the county in late August didn’t do a lot of serious damage to crops.
“In the south end of the county, the farmers were getting on a pretty good roll,” Hennessy said. “We were seeing some halfway decent yields. Not outstanding, but decent. But now it slowed up pretty good. I just talked to one guy who had 700 acres of oats he couldn’t get to. He just rolled it up into hay and he’s going to feed it.”
“In small grains, the rain is going to hurt quality,” Hennessy said. “In the north of the county, the canola looked fabulous. It started out with the worst looking crop that we’ve seen in years. But we are seeing yields anywhere from 1,800 to 2,800 (pounds per acre). I didn’t think we would make a 1,500 pound crop.”
While the rain is bad for small grains that are ready to be harvested, the rain is welcome for the area’s late season crops – corn, soybeans and sunflowers.
