Steve Ibach with United Agronomy watches as wheat to be seed-treated flows from a truck into the seed plant at Berthold May 5. Jill Schramm/MDN

An ongoing drought has farmers in the Minot region taking a closer look at their planting strategies, but they are largely sticking to their crop rotations, according to area agronomy service providers.

Jeff Heil, agronomy operations and small grains manager with Dakota Agronomy Partners, Minot, said farmers are used to dealing with unpredictable weather.

“They’ve been doing it their whole life and their whole career so they’ll find a way,” he said. “But I think they’ll just stick to their guns and stick to their rotation.”

“No plans have really changed yet,” Chris Tuchscherer, co-owner of Optimum Ag Solutions, Kenmare, said as the calendar turned to May. “A lot of farmers are going to put a crop in the ground because prices are good.”

Tuchscherer said producers are finding some moisture deeper in the soil in many instances, prompting them to begin planting wheat, with soybeans to follow. Because canola is planted shallow, farmers are holding off in hope of rain to wet the topsoil.

Tuchscherer said he expects a little more canola and soybeans this year.

Heil noted farmers still have time to make decisions because crop insurance allows planting of canola until May 25, and there are varieties of soybeans that can be planted until mid-June.

Heil said producers began to commit to their cropping plans in March. Most favored their traditional rotations because it appeared all crops could make money.

“There’s no one super shining star. They’re all shining. So it makes it easier for them to decide,” Heil said.

However, going into May with no significant moisture, many farmers have taken second looks.

“We’re seeing some of our customers back out of their canola orders – for now – hoping for rain, but picking up spring wheat. We’re seeing the same thing with some of the guys backing off spring wheat and going with flax. So it’s a real mixed bag, but that’s depending on how dry they are,” Heil said at the end of April. “There’s a lot of guys that are patiently waiting and I’m glad that they are, because there’s really no hurry. With today’s equipment and technology and the genetics that we have, these guys can put a crop in, in normal conditions, within a two-week time frame. Seventy-five percent of their crop can be planted in 15 days.”

Steve Ibach, who manages United Agronomy in Berthold, said some area producers started seeding only to stop temporarily as conditions only became drier. However, in other parts of United Agronomy’s service area, moisture has been enough for farmers who started planting during the last two weeks of April to continue to make progress.

Ibach said farmers may lean more toward commodities that come with better insurance coverage, which varies depending on each grower’s situation. However, he also sees potential for more canola and soybeans this year.

Producers largely are sticking with their planting plans but may have reduced their expectations, making decisions based on expected lower yields due to weather, Ibach said. If conditions remain dry and yields are lower, it could keep that upward pressure on prices in a market where stocks already are below normal.

“The pressure is going to be steady or upward on a lot of our commodities just because this is a big area that’s dry, not just northcentral North Dakota,” Ibach said.

On a positive note, the weather has created a longer seeding window than growers typically see.

“We’re somewhat used to having a 15-day window to plant and now we have a 45-day window, and growers have the equipment to get it done in 10 if they need to,” Ibach said. “It takes some pressure off.”

Extremely high input prices have come with the higher commodity prices. Fertilizer prices are almost doubled from last year, Heil said.

Because of pre-purchased inputs and high commodity prices, along with the hope for moisture eventually, agronomists aren’t seeing many farmers cut corners on costly inputs.