Farmers in South Dakota got an early start to spring wheat planting, while farmers in North Dakota were waiting for the ground to thaw in some areas and in other spots rain slowed them down. NASS said as of April 27, Minnesota was behind their five-year average and Idaho, Washington and Montana farmers were ahead of their five-year average.

In the Monday, April 28 Crop Progress Report, NASS noted that as of April 27, spring wheat planted in South Dakota was 79%, well ahead of 59% last year and 44% average. Emergence was at 25%, ahead of 9% last year and 12% average.

Tim Luken, Manager at Oahe Grain, Onida, South Dakota, told me on April 15 that spring wheat in the Pierre/Onida area would likely be about finished by the week after Easter. "The weekend of March 22 and 23, the area did receive anywhere from 3-6 inches of snow that basically shut down any thought of putting spring wheat in during that time. However, that moisture was well needed as this area of the state had not received hardly any moisture all winter long. Talking with producers in the area, some guys are cutting back and some are staying the same on spring wheat acres. If I had to guess, I would say spring wheat acres will be down 5-8% overall, thus adding more corn aces. What we need now is some warm temps and moisture to get the small grain crop off to a good start and help the winter wheat to the finish line."

"Spring wheat is mostly all planted here in Central South Dakota," said Colin Nachtigal on April 30. "We have been done for a month and emergence looks satisfactory. Given the 1.5-2 inches of rain we received across the area, everyone in the area is feeling better. Corn and soybean planting will be going wide open by May 2 with little moisture in the forecast."

In the Monday, April 28 Crop Progress Report, NASS noted that as of April 27, Minnesota spring wheat was 14% planted versus the five-year average of 17%. Emergence was 0% versus the five-year average of 2%.

Tim Dufault, Minnesota Wheat Research & Promotion Council Board member, told me on May 1, "Spring wheat planting in the Northern Valley is much like the Minnesota Wild playoffs. There are good days, and there are bad days. We have had sunny, warm days where planting progressed; and we have also had rainy days where planting has come to a halt. I would say roughly 20% of wheat acres are planted and with widespread showers over the past few days, those acres will take off quickly."

"Planting is going well and conditions are very good. Should finish the spring wheat up tomorrow," Nathan Olsonawski, Hallock, Minnesota, told me on April 30. He also said he planted 2400 acres of spring wheat this year.

Matthew Krueger, East Grand Forks, Minnesota, said on April 30 they were over 50% done with the spring wheat planting and just received over 1.2 inches of rain in the general area. "The rain was welcome to help drive out the rest of the frost in the ground as we would be in fields one day working them, and then the next day they'd be completely wet due to frost coming out.

"Personally, we have not put any corn or soybeans in the ground yet, but I have heard of some soybeans in the ground and some corn more so far south of Highway 2. I've seen a fair amount of sugar beets in the ground as well. The forecasted cooler temperatures along with the rain had some guys waiting to go after the rain, while some wanted to go before the rain. Overall, things are looking really good as long as we can get a good window here now after this weather event to get some stuff in the ground. But the forecast does show scattered rain events happening throughout the next couple of weeks. But we are starting to warm up as well in the forecast, which is a welcome sight!"

In the Monday, April 28 Crop Progress Report, NASS noted that as of April 27, North Dakota spring wheat was 19% planted, up 9 percentage points from the prior week and versus the five-year average of 12%. Emergence was 2% versus the five-year average of 1%.

Cory Tryan, grain manager at Alton Grain Terminal LLC, Alton, North Dakota, told me on May 1, "Put us down for 50% wheat planted, but Eldred is farther along. It is raining more than forecasted today, so it'll be mid next week before we can get rolling good again. Other than the rain, we are running pretty well now; no big issues anyway."

On April 30, Austin Sundeen, east of Devils Lake, North Dakota, said, "We just got the drill calibrated before the rains started on Saturday, so only got around 25 acres of the planned 900 acres of spring wheat in. The weather seems to look favorable for getting going Friday, May 2, or over the weekend. We got around a 1/2 (inch) of rain over the past few days so this should get the rest of the frost out of the ground and make for favorable planting conditions."

Greg Benz, Dunn Center, North Dakota, said on April 30 he was nearly finished planting his 1400 acres of spring wheat. "We might ... we got some chances of welcome rain in next few days, it's quite dry here."

"I am at 138 acres of wheat planted of all my consulting acres I look at around the Devils Lake area," said Jason Hanson, Rock and Roll Agronomy, LLC, Webster, North Dakota. "So, 0.002% planted as of April 30. Cold and damp is the story. It's not hot enough to take out the frost and not enough rain. I took a crop tour of my area and there is some rock picking and fertilizer spreading but no seeding. It froze pretty hard April 28, but it's forecast to warm up in the 70s May 3 to May 5 so things will happen then."

Peter Bakkum, Mayville, North Dakota, told me April 15, "We should hopefully be starting our first quarter of wheat tomorrow. But will have to wait for the rest of the wheat ground to dry up."

Bart Swanson, Hoople, North Dakota, on April 30 said, "We should finish planting wheat on Friday, May 2. We have most of our sugar beets in and only have about 60 acres left." Swanson told me he planted 2700 acres of wheat and 1740 acres on beets.

On Wednesday, April 30, Peter Ness, Sharon, North Dakota, said, "I have one quarter of corn in. That's it. The 2 inches of rain on Tuesday has things on hold. Hopefully we get going good next week. Since the winter wheat killed out, I'll put in around 1,000 acres of spring wheat."

Nathan R Riskey, Warsaw, North Dakota, said, "Spring wheat is 65-70% done and we had beautiful conditions to plant in, especially with no flood. Now a nice inch or more. So far so good. It's still early yet, by Sunday we will be going again and be finished up early next week. The beet crop is all in on our farm and planting went well and now a nice rain. It was earlier than normal for those too. Now to pray we can dig them all! It will be a huge crop if the weather cooperates."

In eastern North Dakota where Darrin Schmidt farms, he told me they started plant 2025 on April 21. "It was pretty slow rolling with a field ready here and there. Field conditions were OK, nothing great. It rained on the night of April 30, but that morning was misting and such that we still haven't turned a wheel again after that Sunday night rain. As I'm currently writing this (May 1), another rain came through. So, the 1/5 or so of our planned 1125 acres we got in is something. Our wheat acres are down this year from our normal 1400 to 1500 acres. Our corn acres are the same; sunflower acres slightly up; soybean acres up; and edible acres down.

"We had some dreams of early soybeans to try but those ideas went poof! I know a few guys that have no wheat and have put some soys in, some guys did some corn, but really everything was pretty spotty in our neighborhood as one neighbor never even got seeding because fields were too wet in areas. The future looks like the heat will crank up, so hoping we get something done. Until then we've got other stuff to work on until we can get back in the field."

Kim Saueressig, McClusky, North Dakota, told me on May 1 that spring work is moving along very well. "Been going for about a week and a half. Barley and lentils are in and should finish up the wheat and durum by this weekend May 3. We'll have around 2000 acres of durum, and only a couple hundred of wheat. Other than dealing with some cold ground temps and wet low areas, there weren't too many issues getting small grains in. Should start seeing them coming out of the ground any day.

"Will start putting beans in the ground today with the planter and do that through the weekend then thinking next Monday switch over to corn. Looking at the forecast the warmth is really gonna move in getting the ground ready for corn. Moisture-wise, we are sitting OK. We were disappointed with the rainfall that was forecasted this past Sunday/Monday. Was showing 100% chance of rain with over 1 inch expected and we only ended up with .10, but we did end up getting a quarter inch yesterday morning so that was nice. Nice being able to get an early start and not have to push too terrible hard."

In north-central North Dakota where Josh Backstrom farms, he told me on May 4, "Well, we had a very dry winter. Maybe 1 foot of snow. So, the ground froze really hard. So, the ground froze really bad. So much so that the neighbors lost their rural water supply back in February. And they still don't have it back! Rural water district has been hauling them water regularly.

"We had a nice snow in April, .67-inch worth of moisture. Missed the two big rain systems last week by about 40-50 miles. Ended up with .25-inch total. We still have a lot of big areas where the frost hasn't fully come out of the ground, so we are waiting on that. With this heat I think most will be a go later this week. We have virtually no water standing in any sloughs. That being said, we have 1/2 our wheat in on the fields that were fit to go. Should finish wheat this week. Get corn started and mostly done as well as start soybeans."

In western North Dakota where Riley Schriefer farms, he said, "We started seeding oats second week of April. Once finished with oats we seeded about 1/3 of our planned 1,330 acres of spring wheat. We didn't want to move equipment to seed some more wheat, to then have to move it back home halfway through those acres for all the canola. So, we took it easy and didn't push too hard. We should be finishing up canola by May 2 and then we will make the move to finish the other 2/3 of our spring wheat.

"We are coming off of an extremely dry fall and winter. We received .81-inch of rain in one shot mid-April but missed all the other chances. Seeding conditions are good but I wouldn't mind taking a couple days off to watch it rain!"

Mary Kennedy can be reached at mary.kennedy@dtn.com

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