Keith Koerselman’s family farm in LeMars has been going strong for 150 years. He and wife Kristin, along with sons Keaton and Kaleb, farm 500 acres in Plymouth County. Keith and his sons also custom farm and harvest. After the sons graduated from South Dakota State University, they expanded another enterprise into a full-service seed and chemical business offering custom spraying. 

We’ve got a big week coming up. Right now, I’ve got guys itching, ready to do something. They’re also pumping a lot of manure on. We’re waiting for ground conditions to start coming up beautiful. Stay warm, weather.

We had a good week of planting with the majority of the corn acres planted, and planters are rolling hard on soybeans also. Seedbed preparation has been good since we have been so dry. We really could use some rain. It seems like we’re missing the rain just like the meteorologists are missing what they forecast! Sprayers have been busy on the few calm days that we get a chance to be out spraying. New-seeded oats look good, and alfalfa survived the winter without any winter kill.

We did get some much-needed rain since last week. Most of the area has seen from eight-tenths to just over 2 inches in isolated areas. That slowed planting progress, but by the end of the week farmers were able to get back in the fields. Corn planting is nearly complete, and if it’s dry this next week you won't see too many fields of soybeans to plant either. With last week’s cold temps, this coming week we will be busy scouting the early-planted soybeans that were up and determine if we will need to replant after the cold nights and frosty mornings. Corn is emerging and really needs sunshine and warmer temps, but overall stand counts have been consistent with what we planted for population. Hopefully we can get some warmer weather and another nice rain this week. Stay safe.

Corn and soybean planting is as good as complete. A few guys may harvest rye in the next week or two and plant soybeans following. Corn emergence seems good other than some isolated acres that had a heavy rain — those guys have had the rotary hoes out trying to break the crust. Soybeans are emerging. We will have to replant some that got frozen off. We really need some rain — it has gotten very dry!

I’m writing this on Sunday night after storms just rolled through. Some the area received from 0.3 to over 5 inches of rain on Saturday night. Now this evening we have received more heavy rain and hail as large as golf balls. Tornadoes reported and damage to the south and east of me around Kingsley and Marcus. We needed the rain for the crops as we were very dry. Unfortunately, this isn’t the way anyone wants to get it. It will be a busy week assessing crop damage along with property damage. Stay safe.

It has been a week of scouting. Storms that require replant on corn and beans. Between large hail, wind, tornadoes and over 5 inches of rain in places that washed the seed out of the furrow, you'll start seeing planters rolling again. Some fields are ready to spray post chemical on corn. We really need sunshine and warmer weather. I am writing this on Friday afternoon (May 22) and we received over 1 inch of rain in most of the area.

Caught some rain Memorial Day weekend and then we finally got our heat that the corn needed. Crops are growing great. Soybeans are looking a lot better. Some areas have caught some rain here over the last week again, but for the most part we’re on the drier side. Most of the corn post-spraying is done or will be this week. Some guys got their first-cutting alfalfa put up, otherwise a lot of the alfalfa will be mowed this week. Hopefully we can stay away from storms.

Good growing conditions this week. The corn found the fertilizer, and it's off to the races now. Beans are starting to grow after we got some heat. Some areas caught some rain, but we really are dry. Most of the alfalfa is cut and either baled or will be this week. Corn post spraying is finished and will start spraying some bean fields that are starting to get weed pressure.