2018 Expected To Be A Better Harvest Season

corn, soybean production are predicted to drop while wheat production is expected to rise

FARGO, ND — Farmers across the Midwest had a much drier season in 2017.

Agricultural industry leaders at the Northern Ag Expo say farmers could have a turn of luck in the New Year.

Drought conditions made work a lot harder for Midwestern farmers in 2017.

“The wheat was a decent harvest but we needed more rain,” said farmer Steven Erickson.

Now corn and soybean production are expected to be down next year, while wheat production is predicted to rise.
Despite this, agricultural industry leaders say 2018 is already predicted to yield a better harvest.

“All in all, we’re going to end up with a good year at the farmer’s arm,” said Mark Dooley, North Dakota Ag Association President. “All of the Ag dealers are going to end up with I think a pretty fair year. The elevators are going to end up handling a fair amount of grain this year.”

Technology is a reason things are expected to start looking up.

Inventions like the Hawkeye, a nozzle control system, can help manage pesticide drift onto crops.

Some farmers say drifting has been a problem in the past, but the challenge this year was inversion.

“The chemical can pick up and move with the temperature changes. It can drop back down on a sensitive crop and hurt it or kill it. We can control the drift, inversion we can’t control,” Erickson said.

That’s why Erickson says he hopes the weather will get back on track.

“Mother Nature has got to be with us. This year, it wasn’t as good as it could’ve been if we had more timely rain,” Erickson said.

The weather isn’t the only thing that some say could stand to change.

“Grain prices improve. That’s the one thing that farmers, everybody needs. Everybody lives by what the farmer does,” Erickson said.

Until then, agricultural technology remains the key.

“We have to invest a lot of money into the technology so we can start saving that money on the back end,” said Scott Krell, Raven Industries account manager.

The Northern Ag Expo will continue tomorrow from 7:30 to 3:00 p.m.