Staff photo by Fritz Busch Soybeans grow near Brown County Highway 27 just west of New Ulm. Farmers say they’re really starting to grow now.

NEW ULM — Bolstered by the most July rainfall in years, corn and soybean farmers are optimistic about their crops this year.

More than six inches of rain fell in and around New Ulm in July, according to a weather observer. Average July rainfall is three to four inches.

“We got quite a bit of July moisture which we haven’t had in a couple years. It’s keeping our chances for a good corn crop going. They may be some reduced yields in wet spots, but maybe it can be made up in other areas,” said Brown County farmer Justin Remus.

He said spray rigs are busy.

“Some guys are putting fungicides on. We’re monitoring weeds and insects. We often get aphids about this time. The timely rains have kept insect pressure down from what I’ve seen,” Remus said. “August rain makes beans. Hopefully, we’ll get it to keep things together.”

Lake Benton corn and soybean farmer Bob Worth sounded quite positive.

“We’ve had three to four inches of July rain. The crops look fantastic. Beans are starting to really grow now. The corn looks really nice. It’s unusual for us to get this much moisture in July. We’ve had heat and high humidity, which helps too, although it makes it miserable for people,” he said.

Worth said his corn really pollinated well too.

“We didn’t have tassels wrapped up in the top leaves here like they did in some areas. The silk is really long. It pollinated fast,” he said. “It’s still pretty early. A lot of things can happen in the next two months.”

Worth said his beans aren’t waist-high yet.

“We had too many early issues. We planted them well, then wind, frost and hail set them back,” he said. “Weed pressure is always a soybean challenge. We had to spray our beans three times this year, which is a first. But the beans are a nice, beautiful dark green color. They’re even all the way across (the field). We must have had the right amount of moisture and nitrogen, using all of it that was available, which is good.”

National Weather Service (NWS) Meteorologist Tyler Hasenstein in Chanhassen said it’ll be dry the rest of this week but near-normal rain amounts are forecast after Aug. 7.

“We’re looking at 3.5 to 3.75 inches of rain in August. We had the most active July this year with the most thunderstorms since 2021.

“Mankato really had some thunderstorm training (one storm quickly following another), producing eight to 10.5 inches of rain about a week ago. Parts of Carver County had eight inches and the Northfield area had 7-9 inches during that period,” said Hasenstein.

Longer term, the NWS forecasts slightly above average temperatures for August, September and October and slightly below precipitation for the Upper Midwest.

For more information, visit https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/ and www.weather.gov.