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Snow will delay planting for Red River Valley farmer
Fresh snow means it will be at least two more weeks before a farmer in the Red River Valley can begin planting.
Vance Johnson grows corn, soybeans, wheat and sugarbeets near Breckenridge, Minnesota and spoke to Brownfield Wednesday morning.
“Well as I sit here right now we’ve got a good mountain snow coming, it’s huge flakes and starting to cover the grass. We haven’t turned a wheel yet, we’re still waiting for weather to warm up and dry out. So we probably (have) another two weeks if things can shape up for us.”
He says the average planting date in his area is somewhere between the 22nd and 25th of April.
“But I don’t know that we ever really start on those dates. Usually we’ll get the wheat, maybe if we get the wheat and sugarbeets in maybe the middle of April, then it seems like we’re always out of the field for a week or 10 days (because) of moisture. And then normally corn doesn’t get going in here until say maybe the 25th (of April) through the first part of May.”
Johnson says they’re about on par with a typical spring, although it doesn’t look favorable right now because of the snow.