For the most part, the soybean harvest has been put to bed in southwest Minnesota. Matt Widboom, who farms at Worthington, had an above-average crop with yields in the 60s and 70s or better. The average was brought down by areas with disease pressure. “We had a lot of white mold issues, charcoal stem rot and some anthracnose,” said Widboom. “There were pockets across the field that were very greenhouse; we wanted a lot of vegetation, you want plants to be tall and have good nodes and pod development. We even did fungicide, but it just was not enough to beat back the disease pressure.” Widboom estimates 60 percent of the corn has been harvested in southwest Minnesota and northwest Iowa. It’s been a dry, dusty harvest. “The water turned off, heat stayed consistent and our corn drydown was really rapid. There is a lot of 13 percent (moisture) corn being combined in southwest Minnesota.” Stalk strength remains good and yields are above average.
