Grain dust hung heavy in the air across much of the Upper Midwest during the week of Sept. 22, as dry and unusually warm weather allowed farmers to make rapid harvest progress.
"It's been crazy. Everybody's really been going," says Duaine Marxen, North Dakota State University Extension Service agent in Hettinger County. Hettinger is in southwest North Dakota, where a late spring delayed planting and pushed back harvest this fall. Widespread showers in the first half of September also slowed harvest in southwest North Dakota and elsewhere.
About 90 percent of spring wheat in Marxen's area was harvested by Sept. 28, much more than just a week earlier, he says.
Farmers throughout the region harvested a lot of wheat during the week, judging by numbers released Sept. 28 by the National Agricultural Statistics Service, an arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Nine-one percent of North Dakota spring wheat was harvested by Sept. 28, up from 82 percent a week earlier but still less than the five-year average of 96 percent on Sept. 28.
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In Minnesota, 99 percent of spring wheat was harvested by Sept. 28, up from 91 percent a week earlier. Normally, the state's spring wheat harvest is wrapped up by Sept. 28.
South Dakota farmers harvested 99 percent of their spring wheat by Sept. 28, up from 97 percent a week earlier. Farmers in the state usually have completed harvesting wheat by Sept. 28.
Montana farmers harvested 92 percent of their spring wheat by Sept. 28, up from 81 percent a week earlier. The state, which had been far behind its normal pace, now has caught up.
Farmers in Montana planted 72 percent of the winter wheat by Sept. 28, up from 45 percent a week earlier and ahead of the five-year average of 56 percent.
Temperatures in parts of Montana rose into the 90s, helping to dry out fields that had received rain earlier, says Justin Downs, a Billings, Mont., farmer.
Wheat is the first of the region's three major crops to be harvested. It's followed by soybeans and then corn.
Virtually no soybeans had been harvested in the Upper Midwest by Sept. 22, reflecting the wet spring that delayed planting. Favorable weather in the week of Sept. 22, however, allowed many farmers to begin harvesting beans.
Ten percent of Minnesota soybeans were harvested by Sept. 28, compared with the five-year average of 22 percent for that date.
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Seven percent of South Dakota soybeans were harvested by Sept. 28, compared with the five-year average of 22 percent for that date.
North Dakota farmers had harvested 9 percent of soybeans by Sept. 28, compared with the five-year average of 24 percent for that date.
Small amounts of corn in South Dakota and Minnesota were harvested by Sept. 28. Farmers and ag officials in the two states say corn harvest won't begin in earnest until well in October.
Look for an extended article on the Upper Midwest harvest in the Oct. 6 print version of Agweek.
