NEW ULM — Area farmers said recharge rainfall last September and October helped them deal with one of the driest Novembers on record.

“We had incredible weather to do catch-up work. We were able to do more tillage. Guys that strip till could keep going longer into the fall. We were able to do farm work we didn’t do other seasons,” said New Ulm farmer Justin Remus.

“Some late-season rain helped tillage, creating cost savings from parts didn’t break this year that did in 2022 due to hard soil,” Remus added.

“Anhydrous applications should be just fine. We didn’t see much anhydrous evaporation this fall. Hopefully, things will hold together,” said Remus. “We need catch-up rain and more snowfall to build up soil moisture.”

Remus said the downside of dry weather was the emergence of corn rootworm beetles.

“They like a dryer environment to reproduce. Seed genetics have been designed to prevent the use of insecticide, but we added some over the top late in the year to help kill off some of (beetle) parents,” he said. “We may have to increase insecticide to protect growing plants. Northern and western corn beetles broke through here and there.”

Sleepy Eye farmer Mark Portner called the fall weather a blessing.

“We were very thankful for the weather. We got caught up with work we wanted to do around the farm, tidying up things we put on the back burner before. We didn’t have to dig through snow or mud this fall,” Portner said.

“If you don’t have moisture, dirt won’t freeze up as much. It actually acts like insulation. It can be good or bad,” he said. “The freezing action helps break up compaction for next spring. We need freezing and thawing. It would be good to get a lot of snow.”

Portner said he moved his dairy heifers to cover crop fields of wheat and mixed plant species for 50 days with the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program).

Grazing cattle on that land is believed to help the soil and get cattle a good, balanced diet,” Portner said.

The NRCS works one-on-one with producers to develop a conservation plan to help solve on-farm resource issues. Producers implement practices and activities in their conservation plan that can lead to cleaner water and air, healthier soil and better wildlife habitat while improving their agricultural operations.

Financial assistance for practices may be available through EQIP. Some producers may qualify for advance payment.

South Central College Farm Business Management Instructor Wayne Schoper said many farmers did extra work this fall like tearing up oil fence lines and installing tiling.

“In 90 days, we’ll be in March. We had a delayed spring last year. Every year is different,” Schoper said.

The Monthly U.S. Drought Outlook for December 2023 listed persistent drought in the far southwest and southeast corner of Minnesota, all of Iowa except for the northwest corner, the southwest corner of South Dakota and much of eastern Nebraska.

The National Weather Service (NWS) Climate Prediction Center seasonal forecast listed above average temperatures from December through March. Average temperatures are forecast for April through July, followed by above average temperatures August through October.

Average precipitation levels are forecast for Minnesota from this December through December 2024.

For more information, visit https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions//multi_season/13_seasonal_outlooks/ and https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/ConditionsOutlooks/Outlooks.aspx