News

County ag producers finally in the fields

By Scott Wagar

05/27/2014

With spring finally taking over winter in Bottineau County, local agricultural producers are staring to get into the fields, but not without difficulties at time.

“The field work has been slow starting once again this year. The rain has really slowed the field work down, and that tied in with not a lot of sun and cold weather, have made it difficult for the ground to dry quickly,” said Jared Nelson, NDSU extension agent in Bottineau County. “I have heard and seen some fields being planted with barley around the county mainly on higher more gravely and sandy ground”  

“This year for Bottineau County it seems to be very similar to the previous year’s weather and planting season. If some warmer weather comes sometime soon, and we can avoid some rain for a while the field work conditions should improve for growers to get into some more of their fields,” he continued.

As cultivators and seeders throughout the local area entered into the fields this spring, some producers sailed through their fields with little or no difficulties, but others saw unexpected problems with machinery sinking into the soil and getting stuck deep in the ground due to the wet conditions.

When it comes to the type of plants being seeded, Nelson stated that most producers in Bottineau County will plant wheat, along with a good number of soybeans, canola and sunflowers.

Farmers will also seed some corn, flax, lentils and field peas.
Of course, getting the seed into ground will once again depend on the weather, especially for corn because its last day to plant in the state was this past Sunday, May 10.

When it comes to winter wheat, late winter predictions for the crop were positive, but with severe winter weather and temperatures that finished out the season, winter wheat has a question mark over how it will turn out for harvest.

“The winter wheat has been hit and missed this year. The winter wheat seems to be doing well on fields that had good snow cover during the winter,” Nelson said. “On the other hand, the wheat that sat on top of the hills or side of the hills or areas were the snow blew off the wheat seem to not be in as good of shape.”

Nelson stated that crop producers should keep an eye out for certain types of diseases, too.

“There have been some reports of Wireworm in some winter wheat fields that came from the North Central Research Center. Last year there were some issues down by the Lansford Area with Wheat Midge. Growers will definitely want to be on the lookout for them later on in the growing season. They can also go to NDWAN which will help provide them with a forecast of the probability of them being an issue,” Nelson said.

“Canola growers will want to be on the lookout for club root this year. It was detected in Cavalier county last year and is a soil borne pathogen that can move from wind and equipment,” he continued.

 “Another pest growers will want to be aware of is soybean cyst nematode and that it is present around us and spreading,” Nelson added. “Fields with 10,000 eggs/100cc will definitely experience yield loss. Lastly, remember that NDAWN has a lot of useful resources for growers in the area to use such as the growing degree days and the disease forecasting model, definitely take advantage of these services that are offered.”

The weather is currently playing a major role in crop production this season, which leaves producers waiting to see how it turns out for them.