Brutal Weather and Coming Storm Leaves Farmers With Uncertainty
In a region with lots of high and low land, there are more wet areas that usual
LISBON, N.D. — Farmers are feeling the weight of Mother Nature.
“We’re not doing too bad now, things are drying up nice, it’s looking a lot better, but when you’re talking another 12 inches of snow, and what that’s going to do, it’s already wet and late to start out with,” Matthew Lyons, a farmer in Lisbon, said.
He says in his corn field, he’d normally be able to plant all the way across. This year, because there’s so much water, there are a lot of wet areas he’s going to have to go around and won’t be able to plant in.
In a region with lots of high and low land, there are more wet areas that usual.
Lyons has been farming his whole life and says he’s seen heavy snow in April, but not so much blizzard conditions. That’s certainly going to have an effect on his crop.
“It gets kind of tough just going into it because it’s so hard to decide what to do. We know going into it it’s going to be late, and we’d like to plant some wheat, but that’s going to be late, just trying to decide what to do, corn’s going to be late,” he said.
The North Dakota Agriculture Department says in their crop report the average day to begin planting is two–and–a–half weeks away.
Lyons says that would be accurate if it weren’t for the coming storm. However, a few miles can make a huge difference for planting.
“Ten miles there could be drained and dry, here it’s a lot more pothole region, so some farmers are going weeks before other farmers,” he said.
Lyons says most years, he’d be done planting wheat by now. But no matter what Mother Nature brings, he says things can have a way of evening out as the years go on.
“You put your crop out there and you hope for the best. Things can change so much by next fall. As long as we can keep farming another year, I guess that’s all we ask for,” he said.
The Agriculture Department’s crop report says soil moisture won’t be a problem for newly planted crops.
