News

Harvest is going well in the county

By Scott Wagar

10/15/2013

Fall harvest is going strong in Bottineau County and showing great yields and average prices in the grain market.

“Harvest started off really good with good weather and I think the farmers got a lot done in a short amount of time before the weather turned cooler and having more moisture,” said Darren Janz, general manager of Bottineau Farmers Elevator Agronomy Center.
“From what I have been hearing in the country the wheat yields are the best they have ever seen.  Even a couple of older farmers that have been farming for 50 plus years say it’s the best year they have ever had.”

Janz added that wheat, barley, winter wheat and canola are completely harvested, while soybeans are almost completed in the county.

“Corn and sunflowers still remain in the field to be harvested,” Janz said.

When it come to yields of the crops they have shown great numbers, but grain prices have been somewhat unstable at times.

“The crop yields have been excellent, wheat yields range anywhere from 50 bushel to 100 bushel, canola yields are from 1,800 to 3,000 pound yields,” Janz said. “Commodity prices were average but prices have been falling and continue to fall.”

Even though the spring planting started out questionable from all the moisture, Janz stated that farmers in the eastern part of Bottineau County ended well, while the western end of the county saw great difficulties.

“Over all farmers that got the crop in are very pleased with how the year went for them.  With the wet spring there was a lot of prevent plant acres out there, right around Bottineau most of the acres were planted with approximately 85 percent of  the acres planted. As we move west toward the river it is a different story with our Westhope location only getting about 25 percent of the crop planted,” Janz said.