A Flash Drought in ’17, A Beautiful Crop in ’18

One year ago, the western Dakotas were facing severe drought conditions. Pioneer field agronomist Larry Lunder, who is based at Mandan, says the crops are in better shape this year. “Right now, we’re about 180 degrees turnaround from where we were last year. We’ve had pretty good moisture and we’re ahead of schedule for crop development.” Western North Dakota is anywhere from 100-to-300 Growing Degree Days ahead of the five-year average. “We have two major issues in the western part of the state for corn. One is moisture. Secondly, we need enough heat to get it to maturity and maximize our yield. We’ve had good warm days and warm nights and we’re ahead of the curve on that.”