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EDDIE BERNARD: We can plant them quite late. In fact, last year, we planted some way out in past the middle of June. But of course, as we go later with planting, we also cut ourselves short generally on the other end because the beet requires a long growing season if they're going to get the maximum tonnage, along with the beets being mature enough so the sugar content is up where they'd like to see it so that if we can get our beets in by say the 20th of May, it's much preferred. And many of the growers would prefer if they could have had them in at least a portion of their acreage in before this. But this year, of course, that just isn't possible.

SPEAKER: Earlier this year, we were hearing farmers talk about production cutbacks maybe as much as 20% to 30% to jack up prices. Is that occurring in this area?

EDDIE BERNARD: I think it is to a limited extent. We have pretty wide or should I say a wide variation of crops that we grow here. And one of the things mentioned in some of the cutbacks was that they would instead of planting all their acres, they would fallow a certain percentage of them.

Well, where we're growing sugar beets, the fallow practice has been a normal one for most of the beet growers. Some have gotten away from it somewhat over the years, but I think that we're going to see probably more fallow than we have last year at least, especially if the prices of our crops, such as wheat and barley continue to slide.

I think there'll be a lot of the fellows that will be taking a good look at it, especially as we go later and the yield potential goes down. They'll be taking a look at it and probably thinking that, well, probably it's to my best advantage to have a few more acres of summer fallow, especially if they're growing sugar beets so that they would have this available for their beet crop in 76.

I saw some figures here a while ago that as you worked with them, a 10% cutback in wheat acres at the bushels or yields that they were talking about there would mean that the farmer would have a much better chance of realizing a wheat price say above $3.

And the surprising thing was, if you cut back another 10% with the figures that they were using, that second 10% would put the wheat price up back over $4, again. But I do think that as time goes later and particularly if the grain prices continue to slide as they have over the past month or so, I think we're going to see more and more farmers cutting back at least a fair percentage on their acreage.

SPEAKER: If the weather stays nice for two weeks, sunshine, will we see the Red River Valley planted?

EDDIE BERNARD: Well, probably not in two weeks. But if we could have two weeks of good sunshiny weather, I think that we would be just an awful long ways with our spring planting.

SPEAKER: Hopefully, that's what we're going to see. Eddie Bernard, an associate extension agent for Clay County. Thank you very much.

STEVE MONROE: A bright, sunny day saw southwestern Minnesota farmers preparing their fields for crops. The high ground is nearly ready for planting while low areas are still wet and sticky. Farmers were busily disking the soil with the hope that a few more days like today will allow them to start planting corn by week's end.

Some farmers in the area have already begun planting mostly oats, but they appear to be in the minority. The fact that there are a couple of weeks behind last year's planning schedule did not overly concern the farmers I talked to. The rule of thumb on corn is a bushel a day after the 15th of May.

In other words, one less bushel per acre for every day corn is not planted after May 15th. It now looks like the crops will be in by that time. And as long as there is no early fall Frost, late planning should cause no major problems. I talked to two Worthington area farmers, Glenn Karstein and Jim Fellows, about field conditions. First, Karstein.

GLENN KARSTEIN: The last few years it's been pretty early. That's what makes this year late. But as far as late, I wouldn't say it's late for a week or so, yet two weeks you could still have a good crop yet depending on the fall and stuff. You take the majority of them, they got a lot of acres to cover and they want to get going.

But last year, they could start about 15 or 16 of April. And the corn still didn't come up till the 5th or 6th of May. But you take your moisture now, which we didn't have last year, and you take good hot weather, it'll be up-- as far as last year, it'll be up over ahead of last year.

Well, I guess I've never really been too shook up about the weather because I can't control it. I plant the a medium maturity corn, not a late corn, and I guess you just have to go by past experience, which usually it matures once in a while, like last year, we get caught.

But I guess this is something beyond our control and we can't completely plan around it. They used to be when I started farming. If you got started by the 10th you were on time. Now, of course, we've been setting the date up every year. And I guess, if you plant it, it'll last few days of April and it doesn't come up till the 1st of June and if you plant in the middle of May and it still comes up in 1st June, I don't know which one is the best. It seems to me that the weeds get a good start on you if you plant too early.

STEVE MONROE: And so farmers in this area prepare for another season with the hope that last summer's drought will not recur. This is Steve Monroe.