Farmers in the central and western portions of North Dakota got some much-needed rains in the last week. It had been too long since Bismarck, North Dakota farmer Clark Coleman had seen a rain. Coleman’s farm got at least two rounds of rain totaling a few inches. “I’ve got some barley ground just north of Bismarck that had only received .35 of an inch of rain since snow melt on that chunk of ground. It’s tough to raise a crop on .35 of an inch of rain,” says Coleman. “The rains made a big difference and it gives folks hope to produce a decent crop with what’s left.” The rains may not help the small grains much, some if it is already heading, but Coleman is still optimistic about the corn and soybeans. Near Coleharbor, Paul Anderson’s farm received several inches of rain; the most they’d seen in about one month. “The rains helped the corn out quite a bit. There was corn around us starting to roll up and pineapple pretty bad in the afternoon, but the rain helped things out.” Around the Williston area, farmer Troy Bratcher says crops were going downhill quickly before the rains. “I guess there’s no recovery from the stuff that’s already been impacted by the drought, but there’s still some potential for later crops with a little more moisture and not 100 degree weather. That’s the story for western North Dakota from what I’ve seen.”
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