Audio Drought cuts soybean yields (story audio) Photos Combining soybeans Southwest Minnesota farmer Alan Velde Unloading the combine View full slideshow (5 images) Your Voice Join the conversation with other MPR listeners in the News Forum.

	E-mail this page			Print this page

Drought cuts soybean yields
by Mark Steil, Minnesota Public Radio
October 2, 2003

Alan Velde drives his combine through one of his best yielding soybean fields. He farms in southwest Minnesota near Hanley Falls. (MPR Photo/Mark Steil)

Minnesota farmers are getting a close look at drought damage from the seats of their combines. It looks like the the eastern half of the state suffered the most. On the positive side, crop prices are rising.

Hanley Falls, Minn. — The harvest is off to a fast start. Dry weather ended the growing season early. The dry fields and dry crops allowed farmers to get their combines into fields ahead of schedule.

The drought adds drama to the long hours in the driver's seat.

Alan Velde keeps one eye on a computer screen as he guides a combine through long rows of soybeans in southwest Minnesota. The screen tells him what sort of yield he's getting. This field is one of his best. He says the bushels per acre are down slightly from average, but not bad considering the dry weather.

	Southwest Minnesota farmer Alan Velde

"We were in an area here that did receive some timely rains. Very small area. You don't have to drive to far away and you're going to see half these yields," Velde says.

He's seeing it in some of his own fields. Velde farms 1100 acres, some are miles apart. He remembers an August day when heavy rain covered one field while nearly bypassing others. On his best land, the soybean harvest is down 10 percent. But on the driest fields, it's nearly cut in half.

That makes each soybean important.

Velde harvests every plant he can. At a field drain he takes several angles of attack, backing the big machine up, then turning ahead. He clips the plants as neatly as a barber cutting hair.

	Unloading the combine

"Oh, I just love to cut soybeans," he says. "My wife called me the other night, I was combining soybeans about ten o'clock at night. And she says 'aren't you coming home for dinner?' I said, 'I'm having too much fun.' I just love this job, it's my favorite time of the year."

He watches the beans flow into the combine's storage bin. The computer tells him the yield is 46 bushels an acre. That's good. And even better, he'll get more money this year for the soybeans. On this day alone, soybean prices have climbed nearly four percent. Velde says it's a classic example of supply and demand at work. The drought means a smaller U.S. soybean harvest this year, increasing competition for the dwindling stockpile.

"Soybeans are a unique crop, I guess," he says. "They're used in human food, livestock. They're high protein, they're making it into biodiesel. It's just a tremendous demand for the soybean crop."

	Gary Velde works as a seed salesman

Velde's harvest is probably typical of many Minnesota farmers. University of Minnesota agronomist Dale Hicks says soybean yields are extremely variable. In general, the eastern part of the state had the driest weather and will see the poorest yields. But Hicks says its possible to find drought damaged crops in practically all corners of the state.

"I've heard yields as low as six bushels to the acre, which I'm hopeful is not occuring very often. More commonly yields in the 30 to 35 bushel range is what I've been hearing," Hicks says.

In an average year most farmers expect to harvest about 50 bushels of soybeans an acre. Hicks says the corn crop will do better. It may be close to average. Besides the drought, farmers this year had to deal with insect problems. While he watches his brother run the combine, Gary Velde says the soybean aphid was especially troublesome. Velde works for a seed company, though he helps on the farm during the fall. He says harvest results show it paid to use insecticide on the bugs.

"The farmer gained between 5 1/2 to as much as fourteen bushels per acre for treating the aphid," says Velde.

Aboard the combine, Alan Velde watches the machine's sharp teeth clip the soybeans close to the ground. Spinning blades push the plants into the heart of the machine where the grain is separated from the chaff.

"Sitting here in this machine and seeing these soybeans flow in, it just doesn't get any better than that I guess," says Velde.

Velde is an unusual farmer in an unusual harvest. Drought has diminished yields. But he's still smiling.

News Headlines

Related Subjects