Submitted Photo A soybean producer opens a field west of Minot Sept. 26. Much of the soybean crop in the Minot area still remained unharvested going into the final week of September.

With harvest still under way, area crop producers are seeing mixed results as a statewide drought treated some fields less severely than others.

No particular commodity performed better. There were mixed results across the board.

“It was where you were located and whether or not you received some of the few showers we did get this summer,” said Paige Brummund, agricultural agent for Ward County Extension.

“It’s been an unusual year. We expected the poor yield. I think what was a little surprising is some people saw average or, in some cases, above average (yields),” she said. “It just came down to a little bit of luck in where you were at.”

Tony Smith, grain division manager with CHS SunPrairie, Minot, said spring wheat farmers north of Minot were surprised that while yields were lower, they still were better than expected — up to 30-35 bushels an acre in some cases.

Areas south of Minot were hit hard, recording spring wheat yields as minimal as five to 10 bushels an acre. A number of farmers baled their insurance-adjusted wheat for cattle feed.

“A lot of wheat did get put up, especially if it was adjusted early at that low, low yield. If you could get it put up when it was still green, it’s going to make a much better quality feed,” Brummund said. “Anything that you can feed is better than nothing. We just have to find what we can supplement with to make sure our cattle are being fed appropriately.”

Wheat that was harvested tended to be good quality, Smith noted. Protein was high and test weights were as good as a normal year, he said. The drawback for some of the wheat wasn’t the drought but an untimely August rain that took color and lowered the falling numbers on the affected grain, he said.

The canola crop also yielded better than expected, with no major quality issues, he said.

“A fair amount came through the elevator. Good prices incentivized people to sell,” Smith said.

Soybean harvest had just started at the end of September, but Brummund said that crop appears to be hit-or-miss as well. Many fields appear to be low yield, with the beans close to the ground, making harvest more difficult. However, Brummund noted, “There’s some fields that look pretty darn good, considering the extreme drought we had.”

Smith agreed the soybean results appear all over the board, with some producers seeing as little as five bushels an acre while others are into a normal range, with 35 bushels.

While early yet for the grain corn harvest, that crop may be reasonably good quality, even though yields are likely to be lower, Smith added. Brummund also expects mixed yield results on sunflowers once that harvest starts.

She said results were less mixed with the hay crop, which overall didn’t do well. Few alfalfa growers harvested more than one cutting. Hay producers reported crops that ranged from one-fifth to one-half of normal, she said.