After a dent in the drought, will farms see better soil?
Gene Metz kneels in a corn field to test soil conditions on his southwest Minnesota farm as he gets ready for spring planting. Grain prices are low, even unprofitable for many farmers, but Metz says he’s still optimistic.
Mark Steil | MPR News
The region has been in a drought that started in 2020. Until this week, nearly all of the state was abnormally dry and 75 percent of the state in a moderate drought.
Then rain and snow hit and Thursday morning’s drought monitor report contained some good news. On Thursday, 43 percent of the state is in a moderate drought thanks to that multi-day storm system.
Jeff Strock joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about what that means for soils — and farms — around Minnesota. Strock is a soil scientist who shares information with farmers in his role with the University of Minnesota Southwest Research and Outreach Center.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING] CATHY WURZER: The region has been in a drought that started in 2020. Until this week, nearly all of the state was abnormally dry, with 75% of the state in a moderate drought. Well, then, the rain and snow hit, and this morning's drought monitor report contains some good news. Today, 43% of the state is considered in a moderate drought, thanks to that multi-day storm system.
Joining us to talk about what that means for soils and farms around Minnesota is Jeff Strock. Jeff is a soil scientist, who shares information with farmers in his role with the University of Minnesota Southwest Research and Outreach Center. Good to talk with you again, Jeff. How are you?
JEFF STROCK: I'm doing well, Cathy. How are you today?
CATHY WURZER: Good, good. Thank you. Well, I bet you've been hearing from some of your farmer friends since the storm system started there, well, a few days ago. What are they telling you?
JEFF STROCK: Yeah, it's been since January that we've been talking about this, it seems like. People are having a sense of relief, let's put it that way, that there's a big sense of relief that we picked up anywhere from an inch to an inch and a half of moisture across southern and southwestern Minnesota over the last week. And farmers are, now that we're really close to April, they're thinking about getting the planters in the field, and yeah, just a huge sigh of relief for growers.
CATHY WURZER: There were reports that some farmers were already planting late February. Was that right?
JEFF STROCK: Well, I happen to know firsthand that at the Waseca Research Center and here, at the Lamberton Research Center, we did go out and plant some small grains maybe 10 feet wide and 20 or 30 feet long, just to see--
CATHY WURZER: Oh.
JEFF STROCK: --if they would germinate and grow. So, technically, yeah, some of that's happened, but not at a very large scale at all. You know, very, very small. And I can report that none of that has actually emerged yet, so.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah, well, that's interesting. I'm wondering, with this drought monitor, and, obviously, these beneficial rains and the snow, what would you say would be the state of soils around the state of Minnesota? I mean, how much has that sunk into the soil?
JEFF STROCK: Oh, that's a great question. Because of the cooler temperatures that we have at this time of year, and that the sun is not really, really strong at this point, the vast majority of that moisture is actually getting into the ground and really starting to wet up that top 4 to 6 inches of soil that has been really, really pretty dry, given that we've had very little snowfall and moisture over the course of the winter. So, a good thing.
The other aspect of it that's really important to take note of is, is that because the frost has been really absent from the ground for over a month, it does give that water a chance to get into the ground, instead of run off into rivers and streams. So, it's just been absolutely perfect. And we're kind of experiencing a nice, slow melt of that snow. And so, that just bodes really, really well for farmers.
CATHY WURZER: Of course, the key is to hold on to that moisture, right? And we've seen how we can go into flash drought pretty fast. How worried are you about that?
JEFF STROCK: Yeah, I've looked at some of the extended forecasts, and they're giving us an idea that we're going to expect maybe warmer temperatures and average precipitation over the next couple of months.
So, given that kind of prediction and kind of where we're at right now, I'm not really too worried about any kind of a flash drought from that perspective, A, partly because we don't really have anything in the ground to grow at this point anyway, so it really wouldn't affect it much. And if we did have some sort of a flash drought, it probably would allow farmers to be able to get in, get their planting done in a week, a week and a half, and then just wait for more moisture, so not too big of a concern right now.
CATHY WURZER: Any idea of when farmers might get out in earnest?
JEFF STROCK: A lot of that's going to depend on air temperatures and soil temperatures. The vast majority of the seeds that farmers are going to be planting this time of year are certainly going to be things like small grains, wheat, and oats, and then later on, corn followed by soybeans.
And so, there are dates on the calendar that really kind of prohibit farmers from getting out and planting too early, related to crop insurance. And I believe it might be April 12th to the 15th, something in that window, where farmers are really prohibited, if they've got crop insurance, from actually planting.
So once we get to the middle of the month, if temperatures are warm, soil temperatures are warming up into the 50s on a regular basis, we might see some planting being done. But for sure, once we get to probably the week of the 22nd of April, I would expect that we're going to, if conditions hold, we're going to probably start seeing a bit of planting of corn and soybeans at that time.
CATHY WURZER: Hm, all right. Good information, Jeff. Thank you.
JEFF STROCK: You're very welcome. Thanks for having me on.
CATHY WURZER: Jeff Strock is a professor at the University of Minnesota Southwest Research and Outreach Center.
Joining us to talk about what that means for soils and farms around Minnesota is Jeff Strock. Jeff is a soil scientist, who shares information with farmers in his role with the University of Minnesota Southwest Research and Outreach Center. Good to talk with you again, Jeff. How are you?
JEFF STROCK: I'm doing well, Cathy. How are you today?
CATHY WURZER: Good, good. Thank you. Well, I bet you've been hearing from some of your farmer friends since the storm system started there, well, a few days ago. What are they telling you?
JEFF STROCK: Yeah, it's been since January that we've been talking about this, it seems like. People are having a sense of relief, let's put it that way, that there's a big sense of relief that we picked up anywhere from an inch to an inch and a half of moisture across southern and southwestern Minnesota over the last week. And farmers are, now that we're really close to April, they're thinking about getting the planters in the field, and yeah, just a huge sigh of relief for growers.
CATHY WURZER: There were reports that some farmers were already planting late February. Was that right?
JEFF STROCK: Well, I happen to know firsthand that at the Waseca Research Center and here, at the Lamberton Research Center, we did go out and plant some small grains maybe 10 feet wide and 20 or 30 feet long, just to see--
CATHY WURZER: Oh.
JEFF STROCK: --if they would germinate and grow. So, technically, yeah, some of that's happened, but not at a very large scale at all. You know, very, very small. And I can report that none of that has actually emerged yet, so.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah, well, that's interesting. I'm wondering, with this drought monitor, and, obviously, these beneficial rains and the snow, what would you say would be the state of soils around the state of Minnesota? I mean, how much has that sunk into the soil?
JEFF STROCK: Oh, that's a great question. Because of the cooler temperatures that we have at this time of year, and that the sun is not really, really strong at this point, the vast majority of that moisture is actually getting into the ground and really starting to wet up that top 4 to 6 inches of soil that has been really, really pretty dry, given that we've had very little snowfall and moisture over the course of the winter. So, a good thing.
The other aspect of it that's really important to take note of is, is that because the frost has been really absent from the ground for over a month, it does give that water a chance to get into the ground, instead of run off into rivers and streams. So, it's just been absolutely perfect. And we're kind of experiencing a nice, slow melt of that snow. And so, that just bodes really, really well for farmers.
CATHY WURZER: Of course, the key is to hold on to that moisture, right? And we've seen how we can go into flash drought pretty fast. How worried are you about that?
JEFF STROCK: Yeah, I've looked at some of the extended forecasts, and they're giving us an idea that we're going to expect maybe warmer temperatures and average precipitation over the next couple of months.
So, given that kind of prediction and kind of where we're at right now, I'm not really too worried about any kind of a flash drought from that perspective, A, partly because we don't really have anything in the ground to grow at this point anyway, so it really wouldn't affect it much. And if we did have some sort of a flash drought, it probably would allow farmers to be able to get in, get their planting done in a week, a week and a half, and then just wait for more moisture, so not too big of a concern right now.
CATHY WURZER: Any idea of when farmers might get out in earnest?
JEFF STROCK: A lot of that's going to depend on air temperatures and soil temperatures. The vast majority of the seeds that farmers are going to be planting this time of year are certainly going to be things like small grains, wheat, and oats, and then later on, corn followed by soybeans.
And so, there are dates on the calendar that really kind of prohibit farmers from getting out and planting too early, related to crop insurance. And I believe it might be April 12th to the 15th, something in that window, where farmers are really prohibited, if they've got crop insurance, from actually planting.
So once we get to the middle of the month, if temperatures are warm, soil temperatures are warming up into the 50s on a regular basis, we might see some planting being done. But for sure, once we get to probably the week of the 22nd of April, I would expect that we're going to, if conditions hold, we're going to probably start seeing a bit of planting of corn and soybeans at that time.
CATHY WURZER: Hm, all right. Good information, Jeff. Thank you.
JEFF STROCK: You're very welcome. Thanks for having me on.
CATHY WURZER: Jeff Strock is a professor at the University of Minnesota Southwest Research and Outreach Center.
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