Farming Against the Elements

Rhonda Larson, who farms north of East Grand Forks, was able to make significant headway in seeding wheat. “We’ve got about 800 acres of wheat in because that’s easier to plant than beets when conditions aren’t exactly perfect,” said Larson. “The topsoil had about an inch to an inch-and-a-half of really dry dirt and then you’ve got into the frost coming up and that was like a compacted soil, so when you go to plant it, you had an open trench. I didn’t have a lot of it, but I had some. The rain covers up those sins you get in the spring.” Approximately 400 acres of sugarbeets are planted and the corn planter will be busy this week.