ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Unusually warm and dry weather for November has allowed Minnesota farmers to make good progress on harvesting the state’s remaining soybean and corn crops.
The weekly crop and weather report from the Minnesota field office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture says there were more than five-and-a-half days suitable for field work last week.
Thanks to that, soybeans were 92 percent harvested by Sunday. That’s a 15-percent gain over the previous week. Corn was 43 percent harvested, a 20-percent jump from the last week.
The sugarbeet harvest was nearly complete at 97 percent, while sunflowers were 59 percent harvested.
Surplus moisture conditions declined for the second straight week thanks to the warm, dry weather. In all, 34 percent of the state’s topsoil was rated surplus for moisture, down from 41 percent last week.
