It was a year of two seasons for Minnesota's top crop.
"We had the cool, wet spring. Couldn't get anything done," said Bryan Biegler, a corn farmer in the state's southwestern pocket. "All of a sudden, summer came in full force. Gave us hot and dry [conditions]."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that 80% of Minnesota's corn for grain had been harvested by Halloween — 10 days ahead of the five-year average. But depending on the farmer's location in the state, drought may have lowered yields.
"The dryness just held yields back," said Biegler, who also serves as the president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association.
A sliver of Murray County, where Biegler farms, currently sits in "extreme drought," the second-most intense level measured by the U.S. Drought Monitor out of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Toward Rochester, on the state's southeastern corner, rainfall has been less sparse, and bushels per acre are higher, Biegler said.
As for getting the crop out of the fields, farmers say the unseasonably warm days and dry, cool nights hovering over Minnesota have been their friend. Less than half (45%) of subsoil readings across Minnesota's corn belt report enough moisture. But farmers reported over six days suitable for fieldwork last week.
Corn usually caps the harvest season in Minnesota, which has been marked by arid workdays and fear of equipment-sparked wildfires.
Last Wednesday, Fairfax farmer Kirby Albrecht stooped to unwind the chute on his truck as he delivered soybeans to a Mankato crush plant.
"First harvest where I never had to stop for rain," Albrecht said. "Better yields than I expected."
The USDA reported on Oct. 23 that 95% of the state's soybeans had been harvested.
Minnesota's commodities — from wheat to corn — have been impacted by price volatility caused by domestic and international turmoil.
Russia's turnabout on Wednesday, announcing the country would re-enter an agreement brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to allow safe passage of vital grain shipments from ports on the Black Sea, sent prices of wheat and corn downward on the Chicago Board of Trade. By Wednesday afternoon, corn futures were trading at $6.86 a bushel, down 10 cents from Monday.
Days earlier, global commodity prices had spiked — with wheat trading at nearly $9 a bushel — on word that Russia would not guarantee the safety of grain shipments from Ukrainian ports. The rise in price had reignited anxieties over food shortages in export-dependent nations.
Shipping channels along the Mississippi River in the U.S. have also dogged farmers trying to move grain this fall, as historically low water levels have backed up barge traffic south of St. Louis.
On Wednesday, CHS, Inc., an Inver Grove Heights-based farmers cooperative, released annual earnings showing a 24% jump in revenue — to $47.8 billion — compared with $38 billion one year ago. In a statement, the company credited refinery profits, fuel savings and strong demand in its global grain trade for the rise.
