How late spring snow cover is affecting Minnesota farmers and ranchers

[UPBEAT MUSIC] CATHY WURZER: Our top story, Fargo leaders are holding a news conference on flood preparation plans in just a few minutes. Volunteers will start filling sandbags tomorrow to keep the swelling Red River at Bay. For farmers and ranchers in North Dakota and Northwestern Minnesota, this year's heavy snow has made for a difficult and late start to spring. Ranchers last week began calving season in a blizzard. Meanwhile farmers like our next guest are waiting for the snow to melt so their work can begin.

Jake Thompson is the president of the Minnesota Cattlemen's Association and has a ranch in Barnesville, Minnesota. And Mark Askegaard is an organic farmer who grows grains and soybeans a few miles south of Moorhead. They're both on the line. Jake and Mark, thanks for joining us.

JAKE THOMPSON: Hey, good afternoon.

CATHY WURZER: Hey, Jacob, I'll start with you. What does your ranch look like right now? How much snow did you get?

JAKE THOMPSON: We actually probably lucked out pretty well here. I think even [INAUDIBLE] Comstock probably got more snow than we've gotten. Really seems to be hitting the Red River and staying at that line but we probably picked up 6 inches last week. We've had some fairly warm weather here over the last few days. So definitely done and we're now focusing on how to keep stuff out of the mud, I guess, what we're looking at now.

CATHY WURZER: That's what I'm going to ask you because it is really difficult calving season in the mud. The thick mud has got to be very difficult.

JAKE THOMPSON: Yeah, it definitely becomes a challenge for us. We have a little over a couple of hundreds cows, and we started about mid-February. So we're more getting towards the tail end of it. So there's a lot more night checks and things that happen with the colder weather. And now you got to re-gear yourself to get going earlier in the morning while stuff's a little stiff from maybe cooler night temperatures that you can get some chores, some cattle fed and stuff moved around, and things like that.

But yeah, definitely a challenge and definitely something that wanted to usually hope for to be dealing with in March instead of the middle of April.

CATHY WURZER: What are the issues for the young calves in weather like this?

JAKE THOMPSON: Keeping them dry. Calves can handle a lot. Calves can handle some cold if their moms are in good body score condition and the calves themselves are carrying good condition. They can definitely handle some cold, the wet, dampness with a cool temperatures, that's what can get to you on. He's trying to keep these things up high and dry, and it's a difficult situation. Where our farm is, west of Barnsdall, we start the hills there.

So we've got some terrain to get them up onto but it's hard to even get them to the top of the hill yet at this point in time with the amount of snow that's in the valleys and the amount of melting that's going on. So definitely health is really the number one concern I have at this time of the year with during mud season for the calves, just making sure you can try and find a high dry spot for them.

CATHY WURZER: That's got to be tough. Now of course I'm sure you're hearing from some of your colleagues since you're with the Cattlemen's Association in the Red River Valley because that's flat. I mean, it's tough to find any rise at all sometimes. What are you hearing from other ranchers about the heavy late snow and some of the flood projections?

JAKE THOMPSON: Yeah, it's tough. There's a lot of guys that usually don't start around till the 1st of April. And more times than not, they're also the type of producers that maybe don't have a lot of facilities to carve into. So they're doing a lot of it outside with limited resources to bring stuff inside. And it becomes a challenge.

I mean, last week, with that heavy snow and stuff that came, if you're calving outside, it's just that much more night checking, that much more checking you got to do on everything to keep up on everybody coming forward. Like I said, for us in the hills, if we start flooding, I think everybody's in trouble. So I know they were going to do a little release here in Fargo today on flood projections and that's the first I've heard of it.

Otherwise, it's that time of the year. I just wish it was a month ago instead of the middle of April. We're starting to push stuff fairly far back now.

CATHY WURZER: Right. Well, Jack, I know you're on the road, thanks for your time here today.

JAKE THOMPSON: Yeah, no problem.

CATHY WURZER: Jake Thompson is the president of the Minnesota Cattlemen's Association. He's got a ranch in Barnesville. OK. Mark Askegaard's on the other line here. As I mentioned, he's an organic farmer who grows grains and soybeans just a few miles south of Moorhead. You're in the Red River Valley. How's the snowpack affecting your plans this growing season?

MARK ASKEGAARD: Well, it's definitely delaying things. We would normally like to be starting our spring seeding a small grains about this time of year. And we still have about 14 inches of snow on the ground. And we've had a couple of above 40-degree days now and it looks like there's more in the future. So things are starting to move a little bit on diminishing the snow pack.

CATHY WURZER: That's positive. But that is what we've been talking about this, of course, to now for a while that snow pack has got a lot of water in it. I'm assuming that you might be just a little worried here about flooding.

MARK ASKEGAARD: I know Fargo and Moorhead are having a discussion today about possible spring flooding on the Red River. Where we're at, south of Moorhead, we don't normally flood. We're usually fairly high and dry except down in the low areas, so slews. But yeah, it's definitely a possibility, all depends on the weather moving forward and if we get any additional precipitation.

CATHY WURZER: Of course, our friend who is the rancher is talking about mud. You've got to have just about as much mud as he does at this point. You can't even imagine getting your machinery into the fields.

MARK ASKEGAARD: Yeah. Well, it's going to be-- I'm thinking it's probably going to be early May before we get into the field, which is probably two or three weeks later than we normally would be. But there again it all depends on what Mother Nature does in the coming weeks if we get additional precipitation.

CATHY WURZER: Early May. That's going to set you back a little bit, wouldn't it?

MARK ASKEGAARD: Yeah, it would be about three weeks later than normal. We usually like to get our small grains planted the middle part of April or maybe the end of April. But yeah, it's definitely a hindrance. Normally, we can get a little higher yields on average if we get our small grains planted earlier.

CATHY WURZER: Now, of course, most of Minnesota's been dealing with a drought, for goodness sakes, for the past couple of summers. How did you fare through all that?

MARK ASKEGAARD: Well, two years ago, we were in-- I would say a very critical situation, we were very dry. Last year, we got timely rainfall, so our crops were good but we went in the last fall fairly dry. So I think we have-- if we get a decent snow melt here, I think the ground will absorb a lot of this snow and the moisture that's in it. And if we get any additional precipitation, I think that may help alleviate possible flooding this year.

CATHY WURZER: That sounds like that's great news for you.

MARK ASKEGAARD: It is. Yeah, it was nice to go into the fall a little bit on the dry side, so it will absorb some of this moisture if we get a good, nice slow melt this spring.

CATHY WURZER: So how are you doing on the other costs associated with your form, fertilizer costs, fuel costs, all of that?

MARK ASKEGAARD: I would say that all of our costs have went up appreciably over this last year, year and a half, just because there's shortages of different products. Being an organic farmer, I have some different challenges that conventional farmers have, so we don't per se use any chemicals or synthetics like a lot of the conventional farmers do. But our costs have definitely went up as far as labor, fuel, land costs, machinery costs. Everything has went up appreciably.

CATHY WURZER: So how are you looking? Do you think then-- of course, it's probably way too early to figure this out. But what are your projections for this year?

MARK ASKEGAARD: Well, I'm hoping we can still get a normal year and have a decent crop even if we get in a little bit late there. Again, there's so much to be determined of what Mother Nature holds in the future for us. But with our increased costs, we need to have a good production year this year and hopefully the prices can stay fairly stable or not go down very much for our commodities.

CATHY WURZER: I have friends in Wisconsin who are dairy farmers, and I asked them this question. I check in with them every now and again. And I ask, how do you hold up through all this uncertainty that every farmer faces? What's your answer to that question?

MARK ASKEGAARD: It definitely is stressful. But being a farmer for about 40 years now, I've become accustomed somewhat to handling that stress just not knowing what Mother Nature is going to do with us, so much is out of our control. We just have to manage our emotions and our stress level as best we can and try to minimize the risks that we're taking that we can.

CATHY WURZER: Good advice. I understand you grow with your daughter, Beth, which is-- I bet that's fun.

MARK ASKEGAARD: It is. It's nice to have family involved in the operation and to have someone to look forward to after I'm possibly gone here to continue the farming tradition.

CATHY WURZER: Well, I hope you do have a good year. I hope things dry up pretty quick. I really appreciate your time here, Mark, thank you.

MARK ASKEGAARD: Yeah, thank you, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: Mark Askegaard's been with us. He's a farmer who grows organic grains with his daughter, as I mentioned, Beth Askegaard McConnon near Moorhead. We also heard from Jake Thompson, who's a rancher from Barnesville.