Thunderstorms that walloped southwestern Minnesota farms last week — downing grain bins, flooding fields and killing two people — interrupted what otherwise would've been a small, but not insignificant kickoff to spring planting for the state's corn crop.
As of Monday, farmers have planted 35% of Minnesota's corn, according to the weekly crop progress report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). That trails the 5-year average (72%) but is nearly a four-fold increase from last week, when only 9% of the state's top crop was in the ground.
Other commodities, however, still drew mediocre marks in Monday's publication. Just 8% of the state's sugar beet crop is in the ground, compared with 100% last year at this time. Similarly, only 5% of Minnesota's wheat acreage has been planted. The 5-year-average is 75%.
Just a fraction of the state's potato (36%), barley (16%), and soybean (11%) crops is in the ground.
The USDA said "storms and heavy rainfall" hampered farmers from getting into their fields last week, allowing for only 2.4 days for fieldwork. Still, more than one-third of the state's topsoil is listed as containing "surplus" moisture.
Shelley Yang, who farms outside Rosemount, lamented the recent rains as she sold vegetables with her daughters Saturday at the Northeast Farmers Market in Minneapolis.
"This time last year, we were a little bit further," said daughter Kristy, translating for her mother. "[That rain] has really slowed us down."
Typically, the Yangs grow everything from beets to carrots, onions to cilantro.
On Friday morning, near the South Dakota border, Grant Moorse and other volunteer firefighters cleaned up debris left after the previous night's storms that hit Lyon County.
Moorse said his family's dairy operation lost power, but his parents kept milking cows with the help of a generator.
"Grain bins are down; sheds are down," said Moorse. "You name it, if it's an agricultural building, [it's down]."
The two nights of storms dumped rain and hail across southern Minnesota as the wet weather of April stretched into May. The violent weather also left two people dead — a Mexican meteorologist and a volunteer firefighter.
