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.