IP Crop Network, April Report

This feature from SSGA’s Agronomy Action Team highlights growing conditions for identity preserved crops from different regions around the country. Thanks to the states/regions that contributed to this report.

Minnesota
Winter’s grip has faded. The snowbanks are melting away. Lakes and rivers are flowing; tree and shrub buds are starting to swell; and the grass is greening up. Soil temperatures (4-inch depth) are increasing, slowly, with highs ranging from the mid-30s to the low 50s in southern Minnesota. In the next week, rain, sunshine and warmer days are in the forecast for much of the state. Widespread rains this past weekend will help get the crop up once it is planted. Farmers are still cautiously optimistic for an early start to the 2024 planting season.

Minnesota drought conditions are variable; approximately 99% of the state is rated abnormally dry (D0) to severe drought (D2). Drought appears more severe in northern Minnesota compared to the southern part of state. On the April 8 Minnesota Crop progress report, topsoil moisture supplies were rated 36% short to very short, 59% adequate and 5% surplus. Subsoil moisture supplies were rated 50% short to very short, 47% adequate and 3% surplus. With the recent widespread rain, there appears to be enough water to get a crop up, but timely rain will be needed to make a crop.

It is still early in the season, so growers should consider their early planting insurance timelines before planting the crops. The dry conditions have allowed some of the growers’ time to implement fertilizer, manure and tillage operations. Many of the producers are scheduling weed “burndown” herbicide applications to manage an early weed flush. In some of the recently snow-covered areas of northwestern Minnesota, tillage and other field preparation activities have been limited.

– David Kee, Director of Research, Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council

Missouri
Despite the unseasonably warm winter and start of spring, most farmers in Missouri have patiently held off putting seed in the ground to this point. Although we have heard of a few early planters, the majority of the state will be hitting the field with planters when fields dry up over the next week. With that said, farmers are ready to go. Seed is treated, fields are fertilized, tilled and burndowns have been sprayed. Temperatures this week were in the mid-to-upper 70s here in central Missouri, so southeast Missouri will be out in full force. Although we have received some much-needed rain throughout Missouri over the last couple of weeks, we are still dryer than we would like to be at this time. The general recommendation is for farmers to conserve water as much as possible, which means terminating cover crops earlier than we may normally recommend. We have a few shots of rain in the window of the forecast, but it doesn’t look to be a soaking rain.

As of this week’s USDA report (https://usda.library.cornell.edu/concern/publications/8336h188j), 7% of the Missouri corn crop is planted. This is up 4% over the fiv-year average. An estimated 14% of the Missouri rice crop is planted, which is 12% over the 5-year average. For winter wheat, about 2% was headed from around the state with 64% of the state’s winter wheat crop represented as “good.”

—Bryan Stobaugh and Eric Oseland, Missouri Soybeans

Michigan
In direct contradiction to some predictions, I don’t know of any livestock or wildlife that has gone berserk or the loss of eyesight from humans looking at the eclipsed sun on April 8 in Michigan.

Michigan has seen some days of dramatically high temperatures over the winter and early spring, but they have been isolated to only a couple of days at a time. This has a lot of farmers thinking of planting earlier than normal but opportunities for field work have been very limited. I’ve heard of some oats, sugar beets and a few soybeans being planted very early but on limited acres. Current field conditions and weather forecasts seem to be indicating that significant very early planting won’t be happening in Michigan this year.

Discussions of farmers planting intentions don’t seem to vary far from normal. Weather conditions during the planting season seem to have the greatest impact on crop choices of Michigan farmers. The 2024 crops all have 100% of their yield potential at this point. We’ll see how that changes as we deal with whatever challenges may be coming our way.

– Mark Seamon, Research Director, Michigan Soybean Committee

Illinois
Quite the reversal versus the first of March for most of Illinois. The first two weeks of March was busy with a lot of activity – most of the spring applied NH3 is applied, and most fields are worked within one pass of planting. The last few weeks have been just the opposite. Very little field work has been done and most areas have been wet with cooler than normal temperatures. The exception would be the far southwest corner of the state where planters are rolling as I write this and getting close to 50% planted in that part of the state. There continues to be the willingness to plant beans before corn; a lot of that has to do with an acceptable bean stand may be 65%, corn needs to be 90-100%. Heavy rain is forecasted for the southern half of the state starting on Wednesday morning and continuing into Thursday; 2-4 inches is being forecasted for a lot of areas.

The winter wheat crop is looking good, with almost all of the spring N applied and waiting to make the head scab fungicide application for the last pass of the season. As always, the weather in late April/May will determine the final yield, but as of right now, the crop has a lot of potential.

The next time we dry out it will be like dropping the flag at Daytona. With the planting capacity of today’s farmers and with all the prework that is done, this could be one of those years where the state plants 1.5-2.0 million acres of corn a day.

– Scott A. Eversgerd, Field Agronomist – Southern Illinois, Pioneer Hi-Bred Int’l

Wisconsin
Last week’s weather wasn’t great for farming in Wisconsin. Snow and rain made it hard to work outside, giving us less than a day to get things done, according to USDA-NASS April 8 report. But here’s some good news: all that rain and snow helped bring back soil moisture. Topsoil moisture condition was rated 80% adequate to surplus and subsoil moisture condition rated 69% adequate to surplus.

In terms of how our crops are doing, we managed to get a bit of spring tillage done – about 5% of what we need – when we could finally get out into the fields. That’s ahead of where we were last year by six days and two days ahead of our usual pace over the past five years. We’ve also made some progress on planting oats – about 4% of the way there. Our pasture and range lands are looking good, with about 70% rated as either good or excellent. And our winter wheat? Well, it’s looking pretty great – about 72% of it is in good to excellent condition.

– Shawn Conley, State Extension Soybean and Small Grain Specialist, University of Wisconsin-Madison

North Dakota
North Dakota had one of the mildest winters in 2024, as did many other Midwest states. We did not have much snow this winter to replenish the soil moisture, but this weekend’s rain was helpful. The areas in southeast, south-central and southwest North Dakota received about 0.5-1 inch of rain on April 7, which is helpful to start this year’s cropping season. Northeast and northwest North Dakota did not receive rain this weekend, and drought conditions continue. We had a few days of strong winds last week and this weekend that caused soil erosion in many parts of the state.

Overall, in North Dakota topsoil moisture supplies rated 12% very short, 35% short, 51% adequate, and 2% surplus. Subsoil moisture supplies rated 13% very short, 35% short, 49% adequate, and 3% surplus (USDA NASS Report, April 8, 2024).

The weather is starting to warm up, but no field activity is happening; no acres have been planted yet. It is too early to start planting in our northern climate. According to the USDA NASS report on April 8, on average, producers in North Dakota intend to begin fieldwork on April 19.

According to USDA’s Prospective Plantings data released in late March 2024, growers intend to increase in soybean acres in the United States in 2024. Nationally, soybean planted area for 2024 is estimated at 86.5 million acres, up 3 percent from last year. In North Dakota, growers indicated to plant about 6.9 million acres of soybeans in 2024, which is up 11% relative to 2023 at 6.2 million acres. There are some significant shifts in acres of different crops compared to last year. For example, barley and sunflower acres are expected to decrease (-32%. -23% respectively) significantly relative to 2023. There is a significant increase in acres of lentils and dry edible beans in 2024 compared to 2023 (51% and 17% increases).

– Miki Miheguli, Research Programs Coordinator, North Dakota Soybean Council