Minnesota farmers still need rain despite recent storms throughout state

ELK RIVER, Minn. (FOX 9) - Any bit of rain that farmers receive can go a long way to help their crops grow. But as some crops are now reaching the end of their growing seasons, Sunday night’s rain may have been less valuable than if it had come one month ago.

Typically, crews would not want a lot of rainfall during potato harvesting season on the Wingard Farm in Elk River. 

But because of how dry it’s been, even Sunday’s heavy drenching of parched farm fields around the state could not keep crews from chugging along. The ground had been so dry and hard beforehand that several inches of rain were not enough to turn dirt into mud.

"It was really dry earlier," Wingard Farm partner Dan Ward told FOX 9. "We had about five and a half weeks with no rain at all."

Still, Ward says the timing of Monday’s rain fall is the real story here.

"All that’s growing now is our corn crops, so I really don’t need the rain right now," Ward said.

Luckily, the Wingard Farm is one of the rare operations in our state with irrigation. But irrigation has nothing on some help from Mother Nature.

"It helps out. There’s a lot of corn farmers, bean farmers that don’t have irrigation, they’re loving life today," Ward said.