On The Farm: Early Spring Start | Video

Nick Dreyer | 4/11/2012

They are the familiar sounds of spring`s work. On Wednesday, Clarke Stevens and his brother Mitch were tuning up the air seeder. Very soon the spikes will be piercing the dirt, a big change from last year.

"Pretty miserable last year, we got about 20 percent of our acres in and most of that was winter wheat. We only got about 80 acres of spring wheat in,” said Clarke Stevens, Glenburn Farmer.

What a difference a year makes in north central North Dakota. Reverse that 20 percent and Stevens says he thinks he can seed 80 percent of his crop this year.

Thirty percent of this year`s crop is already in the ground, seeded to winter wheat last fall. That`s where another Stevens’ brother, Tyler, was Wednesday morning spreading liquid fertilizer.

"As of right now, it looks pretty good. We`ve had a couple of cold mornings but we talked to agronomist and he seems to think everything looks ok,” Stevens said about his winter wheat.

Stevens will be seeding spring wheat, sunflowers, canola and flax this year. He says the fields are dry for now, but any large rainfall will severely delay seeding.

"Yah, I mean, it`s a little dry on top, maybe a half an inch or an inch on top, but once you get underneath there is still some good subsoil moisture. So if we big rain event we would kind of be in the same boat as last, maybe not as bad, but pretty close.”

He believes he`ll be seeding in three or four days. And so it begins, another growing year upon us and an early start looks promising.

"It`s really amazing the turnaround this country can make,” Stevens said. “It almost goes from flood to drought in six months it seems like."

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