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Winter weather stops fieldwork across Minnesota

Cold, wet weather is forcing many Minnesota farmers to finish fall fieldwork prematurely.

The latest USDA crop progress report says frozen ground has limited tillage, with many areas reporting what’s left will have to wait until next spring.

Carolyn Olson of Cottonwood in west-central Minnesota had about 50 acres of corn ground to plow going into the weekend.

“We hope that it’s not snowing too bad so we can finish.  But we’re really close to being done (and) would really like to be done.”

Speaking to Brownfield at the Minnesota Farm Bureau annual meeting in Minneapolis Friday, she says it’s been a rough fall.

“We got the combine stuck quite a few times, and yields were down due to weather conditions.  Not a great year, but not a disaster.”

Although Olson finished harvest, the USDA says seven percent of Minnesota’s corn for grain harvest remains incomplete.

Just two percent of soybean acres in the state are unharvested as of Sunday.