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DROUGHT

Innovative Ag in Bridgewater, South Dakota, has seen a need for more planter maintenance and irrigation needs due to dry soils.
Turns out, we're in drought conditions in North Dakota about as often as we're not. Jenny Schlecht reflects on that and how much we worry about drought really depends on timing.
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As planting season begins across the U.S., all of South Dakota falls under drought conditions on the U.S. Drought Monitor. Farmers across the region are making typical progress toward seeding fields.
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The National Weather Service wants your weather data
The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network plays an important role in agriculture and is seeking volunteers to help collect precipitation data.

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Christmas trees are grown at farms across the country that have to deal with the same weather, pest and disease pressures of any other crop. We meet a few upper Midwest Christmas tree growers.
For the first time on record, hunters in Minnesota in 2022 shot more blue-winged teal and ring-necked ducks than mallards
Some acorns are not having the chance to mature before being dropped, and some trees are already shedding leaves.
Early hot, dry conditions hurt small grains and hay in parts of the region, and some corn was set back. But recent rains -- where they've fallen -- have perked up soybeans and some other crops.
The Minnesota State Climatology Office is seeking volunteer rainfall monitors for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network in the Beltrami County area.
Aric Putnam was elected to his second term in the Minnesota Senate in the November general election, which saw the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party flip enough Senate seats from red to blue that the party now controls both houses of the Legislature and saw Gov. Tim Walz win a second term. Putnam will chair the Senate Agriculture Committee

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Cow-calf producers had plenty of time to bring cattle from summer pastures, to shelter around farmsteads and to fenced corn stubble fields for late grazing prior to winter. Northeast South Dakota farmer Wally Knock said he has plenty of feed despite a dry late summer.
WDAY Chief Meteorologist John Wheeler said that had such conditions existed in June and July "it would have been tragic" for crops in the region. But coming at this point in the fall, negative impacts have been greatly reduced, said Wheeler, who added that one thing gardeners may want to do is provide young trees with a hardy watering before things freeze up.
"One of the old things we used to say is the lake is not a bathtub, it doesn't just lay at one level," said Pete Boulay, a climatologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. "What I always point out, when people complain that (water levels) have never been this low, just go back farther and you'll find lower water than you have right now."

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