News
County ranks second in Prevent Plant
Heather Milbrath
08/13/2013
If there is one thing that most everyone can agree upon, it would be that this has been an odd summer; with winter lasting nearly into May, spotting rain all summer and cooler than normal temperatures. So what kind of effect has this had on the crops in Bottineau County?
The summer started out with significant rainfall, which made planting a challenge for many area farmers. James Kapp, Bottineau County Extension Agent said that this spring farmers did not get all their acres planted.
“About only 60 – 65 percent of the crops in Bottineau County got planted this year; leaving about 35-40 percent of the crop land being prevent plant acres.” Kapp said.
Agweek Magazine reported on July 15 that the FSA estimated that Bottineau County ranks second in the amount of prevent plant acres, along with Ward, Renville, Cavalier, Towner and McHenry all in the top six.
In that same AgWeek article, author Mikkel Pates reported that the counties with the most prevented plant acres are north of Highway 2; and, that “those are not the counties producing higher-value corn and soybean crops, but the production loss will be felt most heavily on crops such as canola, spring wheat, pulse crops (peas and lentils) sunflowers, flax and durum wheat.”
Farmers had more issues this year besides wet weather, as they also had to battle weeds.
“Weeds have been a major issue for farmers this year due to the abundance of moisture making it very difficult for farmers to get in to spray.” Kapp said. “The other issue with weeds was that when we did get into the fields many farmers wanted to get as many acres planted as possible and spraying was put off until they were done planting. In return this makes for larger weeds that are harder to kill and control with herbicides.”
The weather has affected crops differently, and despite the wet and cool climate this summer, some crops are flourishing. Cool-season crops, like wheat, appear to be healthy this summer. Kapp said there has been some issues with diseases due to the wet conditions, but overall wheat looks very good.
Other crops like sunflowers and corn are late at this time, but Kapp said that is to be expected. Many farmers are concerned with whether or not those crops will make it. Like all things in farming, it will depend greatly on the weather.
“If the fall goes longer and the cool winter weather stays away for longer, I feel very optimistic that those crops will make it.” Kapp said. “For the most part the crops that were planted are looking pretty nice. There has been a few abnormal cases this year but that is all due to the weird weather and growing conditions.”
With the end of summer just around the corner, so is harvest. Many crops in the area such as wheat and barley have started to ripen. For corn and sunflowers, however, harvest is still a while off.
“All in all it’s a waiting game.” Kapp said. “With weather cooperating hopefully harvest will not be too far away and the crops in Bottineau County will be high yielding.”