As more rain falls, local farmers have to pick and choose carefully when to venture into fields
By Per Peterson
Ah, spring in Minnesota.
Robins are scurrying about. Tulips are budding. Seniors are graduating.
Farmers are …
Well, this year, some are planting, some are waiting and all praying for some kind of prolonged dry spell, as another wet spring sloshes on.
And each time it rains they are reminded of how saturated the ground already is, which means farmers have to be more vigilant in how they work the land.
“The biggest problem we’re looking at is compacting the ground,” said Chad Buysse, who farms corn and soybeans east of Tracy. “Everybody is going to have some spots with dampness and mud, but it’s all wet underneath. We can get the top dried off enough to work it and plant, but the big concern is, what we’re doing to everything underneath.”
Tracy area farmer Ben Ludeman said Monday he pushed “extremely hard” in recent days to get about half of his corn in.
See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.