"This will be a critical week": Lingering winter, flood are pushing farmers' window for planing season
BELLE PLAINE, Minn. -- The nice weather we're expecting this week is welcome news for farmers. Many of them are behind schedule when it comes to spring planting, due to a cold, wet April. This week is critical for getting seeds in the ground.
At Goldkey Farms near Belle Plaine, Owen Gohlke and his wife Tracy are ready to roll. The cultivator is primed, and the logistics are set.
"I'm also what you might call the farm Uber. I help everybody transport from field to field to field when we move equipment. That's my job," Owen Gohlke said.
But so far, the farm Uber hasn't had anywhere to go. With the exception of a few hot days in April, the weather has been too damp, too cold, and in some places too flooded for planting -- and the clock is ticking.
"I would love to be going right now but you can't go out there when it's not ready," Owen Gohlke said.
As windy as it is today, this is exactly what farmers are looking for. The wind and the sun can dry out the fields pretty quickly.
"Every day, after about the 5th of May, you start losing your corn yield every day," Owen Gohlke said. "I'm a little anxious. I'm not in panic mode."
A part of southeastern Minnesota has planted corn and soybeans, but most of the state's farmers are in stand-by mode.
Dave Nicolai is with University of Minnesota Extension. He believes the next, few days could be a sweet spot for farmers. And he looks for some of them to finally get in the field by Wednesday.
"This is an excellent window in terms of situations with that," he said. "This will be a critical week. It'll almost be like a traffic jam across Minnesota in terms of the operations we are going to see."
The Gohlkes say they planted late last year too, which was stressful. But for the most part their crops made up ground during the growing season.
