Harvest season is slowly getting underway.
In Minnesota and the Upper Midwest, farmers face significant head winds this fall. That includes record-high diesel prices and a summer that lacked moisture, heading into an El Nino winter.
"Diesel fuel is a concern," says University of Minnesota Extension Educator Dave Nicolai. "Growers from time-to-time will buy ahead, and if they bought ahead, 6 months ago or a year or whatever, if they laid in their supplies, they probably bought that at a lower price."
Nicolai says prolonged dry conditions will be top of mind headed into the winter and next spring, along with those fuel costs.
"I think it's going to be more of a challenge if this diesel price were to continue way into next year without decreasing," Nicolai explains. "And then, of course, that'll have an impact not only on the farm but all over the road trucks, etc."
As farmers get into the field this fall, it is following a hot, dry summer with minimal rainfall. Nicolai says rain this week won't have much impact on what comes out of the field this year.
"Our corn and beans, the crop is pretty much made out there," Nicolai explains. "And so we're just waiting for an opportunity to harvest, but rain is welcome. We do need it, for the profile and certainly going into next spring. You can only get so much moisture out of snow, so it's either the fall rains or the spring rains that are going to really help us."
Nicolai says the lack of consistent rainfall will negatively impact yields, but that won't be known until more of the harvest season gets underway. Much of the state is several inches below normal years. Anything that happens now is more impactful for next spring, at this point.
"Our bigger concern has been dry weather all year long, and that has probably impacted the yield more than anything else," he added. "The lack of a consistent rainfall even in July, and so on and so forth in August, so we won't really know the entire impact about that until we actually get more of the combines out in the field."
Minnesota weather is generally kept warmer, and less snowy, due to impacts of strong El Nino years, and 2026-2027 is expected to be one of the strongest, if not the strongest ever.
