(Editor's note: This growing season Emily Beal will be checking in from time to time with the Spiekermeier family about what they're doing on their farm. Read the first installment here: Spiekermeiers add conservation practices to their family's farming legacy )
Dan Spiekermeier is happy with how things are turning out in his fields as the region approaches the heart of the summer months, despite what Mother Nature has thrown his way.
“Corn is looking pretty good. It had a lot of obstacles,” Spiekermeier said. “But it is coming back and is looking pretty decent now again.”
Spiekermeier’s operation was hit with excessive winds and was hit with frost a couple days later. Due to this, Spiekermeier had to replant about half of his soybean crop.
Luckily, Spiekermeier’s acres are sitting pretty well in terms of moisture, even though the past couple of weeks have seen record highs in terms of heat.
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“Plants kind of shut down their growing process at about 85 degrees. So, when their temperatures get up to 100 things are going to slow down quite a bit and suck up all the moisture. But with our no-till and strip till we still have quite a bit of moisture down on the bottom,” Spiekermeier said.
The implementation of no-till and strip tilling to his operation also has helped the soil stay put within its fields, despite the unfavorable wind conditions, Spiekermeier said.
Spiekermeier and his son, Nathan, run a diversified crop operation, which includes one of their crops being sunflowers. On the day Agweek visited their farm, they were busy hauling sunflower seeds.
“The market has dropped quite a bit, and we want to know what our inventory is, so we’re trying to get what we sold already out,” Spiekermeier said.
Besides running his farm in Sheldon, N.D., Spiekermeier is also a director for the North Dakota Soybean Council. He shared his excitement about the recent announcement of ADM building a crush plant in Spiritwood, N.D. He believes it will offer a whole new market to North Dakota soybean producers and help the North Dakota soybean industry as well.
“The crush plant will offer great potential for biodiesel, and we really want to emphasize the use of biodiesel on our farms,” Spiekermeier said. “It’s huge.”
