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Dakota farmers prepare for muddy aftermath of weekend blizzard

A North Dakota farmer impacted by the weekend blizzard says the big issue moving forward will be mud.

Scott German of Dickey County in the southeastern part of the state tells Brownfield his area got around a foot of snow.

“I think we all know what happens when snow hits the ground and the ground cools, it just takes forever to dry. And we were extremely, extremely wet going into the snow, and obviously a foot of wet, heavy snow and anywhere from half to three-quarters of an inch of rain before the snow, it’s just got everything saturated and all mudded up.”

He says soybean harvest was just getting going last week and hardly any corn has been combined.

“Before the storm there was a really big push to try to get soybeans off (because) soybeans and snow don’t make a very good combo. I think you’re going to see a lot of producers here, probably not in the next day or two, but by the end of the week switch over and try to get some corn combined.”

German says a lot of corn still has moisture content in the upper 30’s and 40’s, but he expects the killing frost that accompanied the snow to help some with dry-down.