With bright days and warm weather cooperating, farmers are off to a surprising early start this year.

 

Alan Peterson owns and operates his farm in Clear Lake, just off Co. Rd. 16. Peterson and his son Ryan harvest sweet corn, soy beans, kidney beans and seed corn, on top of managing 350 head of steers.

 

“We were able to start three weeks earlier than last year,” says Peterson, explaining how the plants yield better when planted early. However they are going to need some warmth. When Peterson measured the temperature just three inches down it was 37 degrees on April 22, and it needs to be above 50 degrees to start to germinate.

 

Peterson does not like to call himself a commercial farmer, being a third generation farmer, but he does ship his soy beans overseas and grows seed corn for Wensman.

 

Not to mention that the kidney beans are sent to a Chippewa Valley company to make some great chili.

 

President of the Irrigation Association of Minnesota, Peterson is very knowledgeable about the local aquafers. His only concern thus far this year is the lack of rain fall and moister coming out of a very dry winter. “Usually we don’t need to turn on our irrigation system until about early to mid-July,” he says.  This area mostly made up of sand needs to be moist for the crops to grow.

 

A typical day for the Petersons’ starts at about 7:30 am when they feed their steers and then head out into the field. Around noon they take a brief break for lunch and head back out to the field again. They wrap up their day by feeding the steer again at about 6 pm. Day in and day out the Petersons work tirelessly to provide a quality product. “For right now, I guess we are off to a good start,” says Peterson, still very upbeat about this year’s early start.

 

Sherburne county is considered to be a corn, soy bean and potato County as far as acres planted. However it is diversified in what crops are planted. “With approximately 62,400 acres (as reported in 2014) Sherburne County is about three weeks ahead of what was planted last year,” says Kevin Hidde, County Executive Director of Farm Service Agency of Sherburne County.

 

Percentages for Sherburne County crops as planted for 2014; field corn made up 43%, sweet corn 2.5%, soy beans 31%, kidney beans less than 1%,  squash less than 1%, green beans -2%, alfalfa/ mixed forage/ grass 3%, rye 3% and other at 3.5%.

 

In Big Lake the Brown Family Farms are gearing up to also have a great season. Jodi Brown and husband Ben utilize every inch of their 10 acres to produce homegrown Minnesota produce. “We are right on track of where we want to be,” says Jodi.  “We put in countless hours of planning to ensure we are where we need to be.”

 

The Browns set up stands and sell their produce. This usually happens around the fourth of July when crops are ready. What makes this family farm unique is they offer Community Supported Agriculture, (CSA).  They provide share boxes full of produce to businesses as well as to members of the community.  As of now they have 95 applications in for CSA. “I have no worries about meeting the demands of the share boxes,” says Jodi.

 

Also mildly concerned about the dry conditions, the Browns are confident in the irrigation system they have in place to help maintain the quality of their crops. “We work hard to grow the best produce we can offer to our customers and our CSA shares,” says Jodi.

 

Having already started their planting season, the Browns are looking forward to finishing the planting process to help serve the community with home grown produce.” Our goal this week is to get our potatoes in the ground as soon as we can,” says Jodi.

 

Hidde explains potato growers are the first ones to plant. “Potatoes can survive the cool weather as they are planted deeper than other crops. The early market for potatoes here in the sandy soils could mean a better price until everyone else begins harvest here and other states,” he says.

 

Stoney Brook Farm in Foley is owned and operated by Mark and Pam Chmielewski, along with their son Brad. With their 650 acres of farmland producing handpicked sweet corn, pumpkins, squash, green beans and sugar snap peas the Chmielewskis are more than enthusiastic about getting into the field for planting.

 

“This is the earliest we’ve been in the field in a long time. And the weather looks good going forward,” says Chmielewski. He is now planting his first of eight plantings; his second plantings will go in, in a couple of weeks. This insures that there will be ongoing picking of corn throughout the season.

 

Stoney Brook Farms is 90% wholesale with Coborns and Cub Foods. Pam sells produce in St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids at farmers markets as well as a produce stand.

 

Following the trend Mark is also concerned about the dry conditions as some of his crops are not irrigated. “Our sweet corn is irrigated, however other parts of our farm are not,” he says.

 

The Farmer’s Almanac predicts a hot and very dry summer with a wet and cold autumn to follow. Needless to say this area is in great need of some precipitation to meet the needs and demands of the area farming community.

 

Hidde points out the potential remains for frost/ freeze until late May. “However this year is coming along as a normal year; where last year’s crops were 2-3 weeks late,” he says.

 

Sherburne County has reported 20% of sweet corn, 80% of field corn, 5% of soy beans, 100% of rye and 95% of potatoes have been planted in the ground this week.

 

“Sherburne is diversified due to the sandy soils/ irrigation and the variety in crops that are capable of being grown here,” says Hidde.