First storm of season delays harvest

Submitted Photo This wheat field east of Rugby awaits warmer weather to be harvested, as the region settles in for a run of frigid tempetrures. Photo submitted by Carlie Millang.
Winter storm “Archer” dumped nine inches of snow in Rugby last week, causing a headache for area farmers and ranchers, and weather delays throughout the region. The largest concentrations of snowfall were reported in Stanley with 15.5 inches, Surrey with 13 inches and 14 inches in Harvey.
Pierce County Extension Agent Brenden Klebe said the blanket of snow will likely affect soybean fields the most significantly, as it will require a great deal of warmer weather before conditions will improve enough for the drops to be harvestable. Those finding themselves with corn or sunflower still in the ground have a better chance of hitting their fields sooner with the help of a little snow melt, but Klebe said farmers must take certain other factors into consideration.
“They’ll be able to finish them off if we can get the snow melted a bit and get the heads of those sunflowers off the ground. What’s going to be interesting is the ground melting underneath that’s going to make muddy conditions. People are going to have to consider getting their trucks in and out just as much as the crops.” Klebe said.
Klebe said a lot of area ranchers are still in the midst of bringing in their cattle and hay bales, a process exacerbated by the snowfall and subsequent drifting across their pastures.
“A lot of guys are hoping for a couple more weeks before the snow really starts flying to give them some time to get cattle and hay bales home.” Klebe said, “The snow drifts will make some of the hay bales hard to get to. They’ll get it done, it will just take some work.”
The 10-day forecast doesn’t offer much hope of a melt, with more snow expected heading into next week, though it is expected to taper off by Monday morning. Highs will continue to run just a hair below 30 degrees for the rest of the week, with lows below 20 degrees and cloud conditions of mostly cloudy.
The National Weather service in Bismarck has released a hazardous weather outlook for Pierce County projected to run into this coming Tuesday. Areas of dense fog are possible over portions of central North Dakota during the event.