Jun 15, 2008 - 04:06:16 CDT
RURAL AMIDON - Mud on the gravel road and knee-high grass made it a good day to kick the tires, chat with neighbors and maybe even buy a piece of used farm equipment at an auction out south of Amidon recently.The auction at Charlie Burk's place brought out a couple hundred guys, most at the wheel of a splattered pickup, to look at or buy a lifetime's worth of Burk's machinery and vehicles. It was parked all around the metal Quonset, where women sold beef sandwiches and chips for lunch.
There's been rain down in that part of the state, unusually more so than other areas.
There, the grass is lush clear up to the butte tops.
Rain out in normally dry southwestern North Dakota and a recent heavy to moderate soaking across the region has put a green spin on what, until a few weeks ago, had been a brown and grim outlook.
Reports from the Burk auction were that used machinery sold high. That trend carries over from last year when inordinately high farm income put many in a position to upgrade to new or good used equipment.
All crop producers, not just the usual top 20 percent, had an average net income of $192,000 in 2007, North Dakota State University reported last week.
That's more than three times the annual income average for the five years before, based on numbers from farms enrolled in NDSU's Farm Business Management Program, according to the report.
Larry Stratton drove 200 miles from Maxbass to Amidon for the sale.
It was raining when he left home; a good day for a road trip. The rain bode well for the 700 sunflower acres he's got on contract for an unprecedented $31 a hundredweight. Last year, flowers sold for about $18, and that was high.
Commodity prices remain high across the board, and the half- to 2-inch rain last week will go a long way toward bringing the bounty home to the bin and the bank.
Stratton said he expected to look, not buy, because he figured crop income mixed with oil money in that part of the state would push prices upward.
"It looks real good out here," he said, looking out across the countryside.
Stratton didn't get the prize for traveling the furthest distance to the sale.
That would have gone to Gary Sparks of rural Crosby.
He comes from pea, canola and durum country and recent rain totaling 4 inches helped turn around a dismal start.
"Now, we're looking pretty good," he said. Sparks had been watching the sale and noted, "Machinery's been going real high."
Leo Heinrich, who ranches from Bowman to Marmarth, was settled into a warm sunny spot in the front of the auctioneer's pickup.
Heinrich said he's had up to 7 inches of rain and conditions in his neck of the prairie looked better than north around Dickinson, based on his cattle-buying travels all around the area.
Gary Gussey, from southwest of New England, said it remained dry out in his country, the result of missing quite a few showers. Last week's half-inch of rain helped some.
"The grass is looking tough," he said.
Based on mapping by the North Dakota field office of the USDA, Gussey is in a slice of the region up through northwest of Beulah underserved by rainfall and where topsoil moisture remained inadequate through the week ending June 8.
Wes Andrews, a young farmer and rancher from north of Bowman, said he was at the sale to buy a truck, the same one he figured pretty much everyone was looking to buy.
He said they've been a little short on rain, "but here lately, we're catching up. It looks like we might get a hay crop."
Andrews said he's hoping the rain keeps coming. "The last four to five years, you couldn't buy a rain in July."
Bryan Clendenen said the family's winter wheat nine miles from Burk's place is looking good, with 5 inches of rain so far this year.
North of the Amidon country at Regent, Bob Candrian, said he'd wait to see how his wheat, durum and canola progressed before getting into any forward sale contracts. Candrian said cool weather is causing uneven development out in the fields, but he was upbeat.
"It was just nice to see a slow, soaking rain," he said.
After an abnormally dry winter and early spring, the USDA says crop conditions throughout the state are now in fair to excellent shape. Range and pasture conditions are graded mostly from in very poor to fair condition. Rains are coming too late for the cool season grasses that make up the majority of range forage.
(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@westriv.com.)
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