Good Weather Speeds Minnesota Soy, Beet Harvests

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Favorable weather helped Minnesota farmers make strong progress on their soybean and sugarbeet harvesting this past week.

In its weekly crop progress and condition report for Minnesota, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday that 6.1 days were suitable for fieldwork across Minnesota last week. It was only the fifth week this season when Minnesota farmers had more than six days suitable for fieldwork.

Nearly 40 percent of Minnesota's soybean acres were harvested during the past week, bringing the total to 62 percent, or only four days behind average. Ninety-seven percent of the sugarbeet crop has been harvested.

Farmers continue to delay the corn harvest due to high moisture levels. Only 7 percent of the crop has been harvested. That's 2½ weeks behind average and the slowest pace since 2009.