Rain. Finally. Last weekend saw at least some rain in parts of farm country. Had a chance to talk with John Baranick (rhymes with mechanic), ag meteorologist for DTN, who lives just down 169 from me in Jordan, Minnesota. He says while the rain benefitted the parts of rural America stuck in a drought, other areas didn’t need a lot of rainfall.
2021
“It wasn’t just here in southern Minnesota. We also saw that it was even heavier south of the border in Iowa, with a lot more four-to-six inch amounts there. Very helpful for some areas, but not a lot of those areas needed it. It also extended down through southern Wisconsin and into Northern Illinois. A lot of those crops, again, didn’t really need it, but it’s definitely helpful wherever it hit. And that front is starting to come through the eastern half of the Corn Belt. Again, a lot of these areas are doing much better than we are out here in the West, but Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio are all seeing bouts of rain this week. They’ve had some flooding in some of these areas, but the rainfall that’s gone through is mostly favorable. It’s just those Western states that just haven’t.”
The Dakotas saw mixed results from the weekend rain.
“South Dakota got some pretty good rainfall. The eastern half of it did, but the western half didn’t, really. North Dakota has kind of been missing out on a bunch of rain lately, although their soil moisture, for the most part, and the crop conditions are still pretty good.”
The Plains States are still struggling with drought…tape
“It’s the states of Nebraska, Kansas, kind of northern Missouri that have missed out on a lot of the rainfall even with these fronts coming through, and they’ve had a lot hotter. Temperatures have been up near or eclipsing 100 degrees very consistently all summer long, so the heat has been putting on a whole lot of stress for those areas.”
There may finally be some cooler air on the way into the Plains next week and may bring at least a little rain with that front…tape
“We’re seeing late next week, maybe mid-to-late next week, a push a cooler air move through and that’s gonna come with a bit of showers too, so it’s not a whole lot of rainfall and probably on the order for most people have a half inch or less, But the temperatures are going to cool back down. Instead of seeing highs in the 90s and up near 100. It’s more like the 70s and 80s for several days, so it’s actually gonna be below-normal temperatures for a bit. That kind of occurs late next week into the following week, so it’ll be a nice relieving break for them.
Unfortunately, many parts of rural America are still stuck in a drought. We’ll talk about that more later this week.
Spring weather is always a fun conversation across farm country, whether in the local coffee shop, after church, or during a sidewalk stroll down any small-town street in America. I came across a recent article from the National Weather Service saying that March might have above-normal temperatures and was intrigued. So, I got on the phone for an assignment from the National Association of Farm Broadcasting and began digging.
My first phone call was to Dennis Todey, the director of the Midwest Climate Hub in Ames, Iowa. As far as the March forecast goes, the veteran meteorologist says it depends on one thing: location, location, and location.
“The farther north you go, the less chance you have of being above normal during March,” Todey said. “But we should begin to rebound fairly quickly after the recent cold stretch that brought snow into parts of the Upper Midwest.”
Dennis Todey is the director of the Midwest Climate Hub in Ames, Iowa. (photo from climatehubs.usda.gov)
What you may not know is most of the cold that covered parts of the Upper Midwest was originally supposed to stay well to the north, especially up in Canada. Some of that cold worked its way into the North Central U.S., but it’s been limited mainly to the areas with snow cover.
As you go further west in the Northern Plains, there is less snow cover, so the temps haven’t been quite as cold. “The probabilities are not big, but the possibility of some warmer temperatures is there,” Todey said.
Looking out beyond March to the spring weather forecast, again, it all depends on which location you’re referring to. Out in the Eastern Corn Belt from Central Illinois and further east, they’ve had several storm events move through the area. The outlook in that location continues to look wet there.
“Planting delays are definitely on the radar in that location,” Todey said.
It’s the opposite in the Central and Southern Plains, where drought conditions have steadily grown worse in recent months as it’s been a dry and warm winter. The big question is whether the area is going to get any moisture anytime soon.
“It’s going to be interesting in the eastern Dakotas and parts of Minnesota,” he said. “They got some moisture late last year and recently picked up some recent snow as well.
“Places like Missouri and Iowa are more of a mixed bag right now,” he said. “Iowa still has some carryover dry soils, and then we have some dry soils in parts of Wisconsin in areas that keep missing out on moisture events.”
Speaking of dry weather, a good-sized part of rural America is short of moisture. The shortage in the plains begins in Nebraska and stretches to the south. It’s dry to very dry, but the lack of moisture doesn’t stop there.
“Parts of Iowa and Wisconsin are quite dry,” Todey said. “It’s quite dry in northern Illinois, which is a carryover from last year. Depending on which part you’re talking about, parts of the Dakotas had moisture while others didn’t get enough moisture for runoff for ponds and dugouts from a livestock standpoint.”
The winter wheat crop is really struggling because of the dry weather. The spring weather forecast hopefully has some moisture in it to help the wheat crop to at least somewhat rebound from the poor conditions.
As winter begins to wind down and spring gets closer, Todey has noticed an interesting trend in recent years when it comes to winter weather. Up here in Minnesota, we were able to take the dog for a walk in short sleeves or light jackets into November of 2021, which is almost becoming more of the norm rather than the exception.
“Winter has been showing up later than normal in recent years,” he said after some thought on the matter. “Let me frame this climatologically for you.
“The 90 coldest days on average for most of the Upper Midwest are typically December, January, and February,” Todey said. “That’s based on looking at data over the last 30 years. We’ve seen some of the coldest events of the winter occurring in late February.”
While late-winter snow isn’t uncommon, the larger events have been coming later and later, so “something is going on that’s a little different.”
Spring weather is never a dull topic of conversation in the Midwest, is it? We went from a fantastic week of mild weather leading up to Easter to a run of below-normal temps and snowfall on Easter Sunday. While it was only a couple inches here in Maple Grove, there were much higher amounts elsewhere. I talked weather with Bryce Anderson of DTN, who says it’s not unusual at all to get snow during April.
“That has certainly happened many times before,” he said. “The heavy snow was certainly unwelcome because it set back farmer fieldwork for a while, probably a week later than they wanted.
This is what spring weather looked like in a good deal of the Central Plains and Midwest when flooding hit farmers hard. The good news in the spring weather forecast this year is the threat of flooding has moderated, depending on where you live. (Photo from curbed.com)
Farmers are certainly chomping at the bit to get spring fieldwork done to get ready for planting. Remember April 15th of 2019 and the big snowstorm that moved through the Midwest? Here on the west side of the Twin Cities, we picked up 17 inches of snow last year. Happy Tax Day, right? However, despite that recent round of spring weather, Anderson doesn’t expect the monumental planting delays we saw last year during one of the roughest springs in recent memory.
Here’s a quick recap of a rough spring in 2019, courtesy of PBS:
“It won’t be a repeat of last year by any means,” he said emphatically. “Despite storm activity that moved through the southwestern and central United States, things were starting to moderate as we headed into the weekend. That colder arctic air we saw come into the Midwest over Easter was very slow in leaving the region, so that’ll also set fieldwork back a bit.”
One area of good news in the spring weather forecast is he’s not as worried about widespread flooding in farm country as he was a month ago. However, the caveat is that it depends on where you live. Still, things have slowed down some on that front.
“It’s not just me saying that either,” Anderson said. “Hydrologists with the Corps of Engineers have said the movement of the higher water throughout the nation’s river systems has been better than they hoped it would be. However, that doesn’t mean we won’t have trouble spots.
“The James River Valley that runs through South Dakota and the Red River Valley in North Dakota and Minnesota are still at flood stage,” he said. “In the Delta, there are streams in some portions of the lower Mississippi River Valley where flooding is still ongoing.”
Unfortunately for farmers and folks in those areas, flooding will likely continue in those areas for some time yet. Anderson did say that there likely aren’t going to be any new flood threats that develop in the spring weather forecast for farm country unless there’s a drastic change in the weather pattern. Before the recent run of cold and snow, farmers have gotten some planting done this spring in the eastern Corn Belt.
“There has been some soybean planting in Illinois and Indiana,” he said. “Growers in the western Corn Belt likely haven’t gotten very busy yet. In other areas of the Delta, corn planting is way behind in states like Mississippi and Arkansas. They likely won’t get a lot done after the recent run of storms and rainfall that recently hit southern areas.
NDSU Bison football. What do you know? They’re in another title game. Here’s a preview of the Saturday matchup with James Madison University.
There’s a third certainty in life besides death and taxes. It’s the North Dakota State University football team making a deep run into the FCS playoffs. The NDSU Bison take on James Madison University for the FCS college football championship on Saturday, Jan. 11, in Frisco, Texas. Kickoff is at 11 a.m. Central time. The Bison (15-0) are the No. 1-ranked team in the land while James Madison (14-1) is No. 2.
North Dakota State and James Madison University meet Saturday for the FCS Division 1 title game on Saturday, Jan. 11, in Frisco, Texas. (photo from collegefootballnews.com).
These two teams have quite a history. First of all, this is
a rematch of the 2017 national championship game. NDSU has won two straight and
seven of the last eight national championship games. JMU took the 2016 national
title game after they beat the Bison in the national semifinals. James Madison
is making its third appearance in the title game in the last four years.
NSDU football beat writer Jeff Kolpack (@FGOSPORTSWRITER) spoke to Travis Aune on Minnesota Sports
Weekly and was refreshingly honest when asked if he thought heading into
the season that the Bison would make yet another appearance in the title game.
“To give you a one-word answer, it’s ‘no,’” he said with a laugh. “I wasn’t expecting it because I thought we had too many young players. It’s tough to depend on a freshman quarterback (Trey Lance of Marshall, MN) to get you back to Frisco (Texas).
Another year, same result
“That being said, there’s something about this program that
just keeps reinventing itself,” he added. “One of the advantages this program
has is they don’t have a lot of players leaving every year. Guys sometimes stick
around for 2-3 years before they even get a shot at seeing the field. I think
that’s a lot of dedication to a program that you don’t see as much of anymore.”
He says a lot of today’s kids that aren’t playing as freshmen
will often bail on their program and look for opportunities elsewhere. It’s the
“instant gratification” part of today’s sports and the Bison program has been
able to avoid a lot of that.
Obviously, the Bison aren’t winning as much as they have without talent. “They have a lot of that,” he said. “They have a lot of support, resources, and money, as well as a university president (Dean. L Bresciani) who’s on board with the program’s success. You need all those things. Did I expect this? No. Am I surprised they’re here again? No.”
Freshman QB
Despite being a redshirt freshman, Marshall native Trey
Lance has shown the ability to be an equally effective passer and runner since
taking over under center for the Bison. For a young player, his accuracy is
remarkable. He’s thrown for 28 touchdowns and doesn’t have a single
interception this season.
“He’s 6-foot-2, 225 pounds, and is a powerful runner,” Kolpack
said. “His development is coming along well. He recognizes what defenses are trying
to do and gets to his check-down points. He’s much farther along mentally than
anyone thought he’d be at this point. It’s sometimes hard to remember that he’s
just a freshman when he’s out there.”
Matt Entz took over as head coach after Chris Kleiman left for Kansas State University after last season. Kolpack said the first year under Entz “couldn’t have gone any better.” He was the defensive coordinator under former Bison coaches Kleiman and Craig Bohl.
Dominance
The Bison have been on a remarkable run of winning football.
Minnesota Sports Weekly host Travis Aune pointed out that NDSU beats most of
its opponents by considerable margins. Why don’t the Bison schedule better
opponents? Kolpack’s answer was a simple one; “No one will play them.” He said
it might be hard to truly appreciate just how good the program has been over many
years.
“It’s one of the most dominant college football programs in history,” he said. “If they win on Saturday, they may win three more. If that’s the case, the NDSU Bison program becomes the most dominant one in college football history.
“However, when you’re watching it before your eyes, it may be hard to recognize that,” Kolpack added. “It’s hard to live in the moment of a history book because technically the book hasn’t been written yet. It’ll be written 10-20 years down the road. You write it after the fact.”
This Saturday
Looking ahead to the title game on Saturday, Kolpack said the
defenses could play a major role in the outcome. James Madison is No. 1 in the
country in terms of yards allowed on the ground, with their opponents averaging
a mere 61 yards per game and 2.2 yards per rush.
“The recent run of NDSU Bison success has been built on good defense,” he said. “They’re a good defensive team again this year. I think the first team to 20 is going to win this game. The teams will open with some basic football early on and get a feel for what each of them is doing.
“Two heavyweights like this are going to come out like boxers,”
Kolpack said. “They’re not going to try for the knockout early. I’m seeing a
close, low-scoring game.”
You can find the whole interview with Jeff Kolpack as part
of Minnesota Sports Weekly right here.
Farm country is getting closer and closer to spring planting. Farmers are starting to look at their planters longingly, dreaming of being out in the field. After a wet winter that resulted in serious flooding problems, the nation’s midsection is looking for a spell of dry weather. However, ag meteorologist Ryan Martin of Warsaw, Indiana, says planters are likely going to sit a spell yet. It’s important to remember that we’re way too early to think about seriously-delayed spring planting.
“It probably going to be late this month or early into next month before planters get rolling,” Martin said. “It’s way too early to start thinking about serious spring planting delays. We’re actually not even at first planting dates in a large part of the Corn Belt yet.
Heartland Forecast
“As I look at the pattern stretching all the way from the
Great Plains through the Corn Belt, we’ve got a big weather system that wants
to move through late this weekend (Sunday, April 7 possibly through early
Tuesday the 9th). There won’t be a lot of good drying time after
that running through the end of the week.”
After that, there’s another system in the 11-to-16-day forecast that may have 1-3 inches of rain coming across all the key growing areas. Martin says, flooding and current situation aside, the forecast doesn’t give farmers enough of a window in there to really start spring planting en masse.
The Elkhorn River in Nebraska is way over its banks, covering up a lot of farm ground in Nebraska. Spring planting is likely to be delayed in a large part of the Midwest and Corn Belt because of flooding just like this. (Photo from Omaha.com)
Parts of Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri have been devastated by flooding this spring, and the dry weather farmers are looking for really isn’t going to happen. “I don’t think so,” he said. “The way the pattern looks over the next 10 days, I’m counting two systems that come through. One won’t have a huge amount of rain, but the second one could bring as much as a quarter-inch to as much as 1.25 inches.
“Normally at this time of year that would be good news,”
Martin added. “But, the way things are set up right now it’s just not good.”
Southern Plains/Delta
There are some planters rolling deeper in the Southern Plains and in the Delta. Martin said the weather pattern in that part of the country shows that farmers may have to dodge some thunderstorms in order to keep spring planting going forward.
“Fronts will be coming through but as they do, they won’t
hit everyone at the same time,” he said. “Over the next three weeks or so,
those storms will end up with about 60-70 percent coverage at any given time.
It doesn’t look too excessive to me right now. It’ll be a hodgepodge type of
activity that should eventually allow crops into the ground and then get the crops
the kind of rainfall they need to get going.”
The pattern for the heaviest rains wants to stay a little
farther north into the Central Plains and the Missouri Valley Corn Belt areas.
The interesting area to watch will be the far east part of the Deep South,
where the likelihood of getting the crop in the ground on time is pretty good.
“Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and up into Tennessee are places where temperatures might lag a little behind normal,” Martin said. “There could be some thunderstorm development but I’m not quite as bullish on rain or bearish on getting spring planting in the Deep South done as I am farther north.”
Potential Flooding
Possible in Upper Midwest
There won’t be as much happening in the western states in
terms of precipitation like there will be in other parts of the country. The
biggest story in the western U.S. won’t be in terms of new systems moving
through. It’ll more likely involve snowpack runoff. The interesting thing about
snowpack runoff is the problems won’t necessarily be just out west.
“The Red River likely will hit major flood stage in eastern
North Dakota and western Minnesota,” he said. “There is snowpack that goes all
the way back up into Montana and into the northern Rockies. The biggest question
is just how fast we’ll see that snow melt and move through the area.
“The question is whether we’ll see a fast snowmelt with temps above normal,” he added. “That could be the story more than new systems coming through. Temperatures are still a little squirrely as temps likely will lag behind normal due to all that snowpack that still sits on the ground in those areas I mentioned.”
The University of Minnesota-Crookston baseball team describes itself as “gritty, not pretty.” Whatever they’d like to call themselves, it’s working. In spite of the challenges that come with a small-college program, the Golden Eagles won 14 of their first 22 games. Eagles head coach Steven Gust said they’re playing some pretty good baseball in spite of fielding a young roster this spring.
“We’re getting the job done,” he said with a smile visible through the phone. “it’s been a bit of a surprise because we lost key contributors from last year’s team. However, we’re finding ways to win in spite of that.
Steven Gust is the head coach of the University of Minnesota-Crookston baseball team. (Photo from goldeneaglesports.com)
“We aren’t going to overpower people on the mound this season,” he said. “Our best kid from last year, Zach Seipel, got drafted by the Atlanta Braves. That’s good news but he was only a junior, so we did expect him back this year. The kids we do have back are doing a good job of filling the strike zone, mixing their speeds, and are attacking hitters.”
The first player drafted
Getting a player drafted into Major League Baseball is a feather in the cap of any program. However, it’s an even bigger feather for a small school like Minnesota-Crookston because he was the first Golden Eagle ever picked in the MLB draft. What makes it an even better story is the young man didn’t originally come in to pitch for the Golden Eagles.
“I saw him as a catcher in legion baseball,” Gust recalled. “I
thought he had a pretty decent arm behind the plate. I wasn’t sure about his hitting,
but good defensive catchers can be hard to find. It was one of my first years
coaching and our pitching was thin. We needed someone to pitch the end of a
scrimmage and he volunteered after pitching just nine total innings in high
school.”
Gust said, “The ball jumped out of Zach’s hand and he was around the zone. After that, we told him to sell his catcher’s glove and he became our closer. He left here throwing a 93-94 mile-per-hour fastball. He’s a great kid and he’s only going to get better as a player.”
The University of Minnesota-Crookston was understandably excited when Zach Seipel became the first Golden Eagle drafted by a Major League Baseball team. He went to the Atlanta Braves in the 27th round and head coach Steven Gust said he expects Zach to do well and move up the chain. (Photo from goldeneaglesports.com)
Getting a player drafted is big milestone considering that
before Gust and the current staff arrived, the Golden Eagles had won just two
of their previous 100 games. Literally, the team was 2 and 98 before Gust showed
up.
Building a program
“We were fortunate to add some good players to some really good-character kids that were already here,” Gust said, “and they all bought in right away. There are so many pieces to the puzzle when you’re trying to build a program like Minnesota-Crookston.
“The pieces include working on facilities and trying to get
the highest quality you can,” he added. “You have to find good assistant
coaches that don’t mind working for literally nothing other than their passion
for the game. We also don’t have a lot of scholarships to offer, so that’s not
a strength either.”
When Gust took over the program, there were 18 Golden Eagles
on the roster. Now, in spite of some limitations that come with smaller-school
athletics, they currently have 46 players on the roster. They recruit primarily
in Minnesota and North Dakota. They’ll include a few kids out of Wisconsin,
Iowa, and South Dakota as well.
“The majority of our kids come in from our backyard,” he
said. “We’ve created some excitement in the area by bringing in a lot of
familiar players. The attendance and support from the community have been
great. We’re just trying to do the little things that maybe one day will allow
us to start thinking about winning a championship.
“We don’t have any 5-tool recruits,” Gust added. “We’re
getting better players who happen to be good students as well. Our team GPA in
the fall was 3.3, which is almost unheard of. We’re looking for guys who might
have a little chip on the shoulder because they weren’t recruited by some of the
bigger schools. They’ll have a passion for what they’re doing out there on the
field.”
Gust added, “There’s no way I could run a program if I didn’t have a great group of people around me.”
Weather is a challenge
Like most schools in the north, the weather is always a challenge to deal with. Gust said one of the biggest goals for all the Crookston programs is to get a covered practice facility. What really hurts the team is not being able to get outside much early in the season to get some much-needed practice in. Gust says, “I think that’s coming here at Minnesota-Crookston, it’s just a matter of when.”
The Eagles team is basically brand-new this season. They
graduated a lot of seniors from last spring’s squad. Last year, Crookston won
24 baseball games, but Gust said they were “disappointed” because they thought
they were headed back to the postseason tournament. However, it didn’t happen.
“We have several junior college players on the roster this spring,” Gust said. “Sometimes, it’s hard for Junior College players to buy in when they come to a four-year school. However, our guys seem to have bought in right away. We’ve found ways to get things done so far in spite of facing some really good pitching in the first three weeks of the conference season.”
NSIC a solid conference
From top-to-bottom, the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference is one of the best Division Two conferences in the country. For example, they have the defending national champion Augustana (Sioux Falls, SD) Vikings as a member of the conference.
“Minnesota-State Mankato is always good,” Gust said. “Concordia-St.
Paul has some really solid arms this season. St. Cloud State might be the team
to beat. Even the teams that have been on the bottom over the past few years
have gotten better. Teams like the University of Mary (Bismarck, ND) and Minot
State (Minot, North Dakota) are among the teams taking steps forward.”
Even before they got going in their conference schedule,
Crookston headed south to play some very good non-conference squads. They
started off their season with perennial power Central Missouri State. Gust said
people told him he was crazy to play them. However, he did see some good things
in spite of losing to CMS.
“I thought a lot of good things came out of playing tough
competition like that,” he said. “I saw signs that we could be a pretty good
team. We also went down to Florida to play some really tough teams too. I think
our non-conference schedule really prepared us well to do some good things in
the conference.”
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is investigating the source of a Palmer amaranth plant found growing in Jackson County.
Palmer Amaranth is popping up in southwestern Minnesota counties, including Redwood and Jackson. Keep an eye out for this in your fields. If you do find it, get out there and pull it out by hand, including the roots. Don’t let it multiply! (Photo from NRCS/Iowa)
In early September, a farmer noticed a suspicious weed in the first few rows of a soybean field adjacent to a utility field road. The weed survived a herbicide treatment. making initial identification difficult. The farmer then contacted the University of Minnesota Extension, which submitted the plant for genetic identification. The test has confirmed it was Palmer amaranth. MDA staff scouted fields in the area and have not found any other Palmer plants. The MDA is investigating where the Palmer amaranth seed came from.
“This is another case illustrating the effective collaborations established between the MDA, U of M Extension, crop consultants, and farmers throughout the state for locating and reporting Palmer amaranth,” said Mark Abrahamson, MDA’s Director of Plant Protection. “We continue to urge farmers and landowners to become familiar with what Palmer amaranth looks like and to immediately contact the MDA, Extension, or a crop consultant for help if they suspect Palmer amaranth on their property.”
Since 2016, the invasive weed has now been found in six Minnesota counties. In addition to this latest find in Jackson County, the MDA confirmed the weed in a Redwood County soybean field last week. It was also discovered in conservation plantings in Lyon and Yellow Medicine counties in 2016, and Todd and Douglas counties in 2017. However, after eradication treatments, Palmer has not been found at any sites in those four counties during 2018.
Palmer amaranth is listed as a Prohibited Weed Seed. This means it’s not allowed in any seed offered for sale in the state. It is also on Minnesota’s Prohibited Noxious Weed Eradicate List. All above and below ground parts of the plant must be destroyed. Also, no transportation, propagation, or sale of this plant is allowed.
If anyone suspects Palmer amaranth, they can contact the MDA through the Arrest the Pest line at 1-888-545-6684 or arrest.the.pest@state.mn.us.
Palmer amaranth is native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It has been found in over half of the states, and along with Minnesota, it has been found in the neighboring states of Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
