By Elizabeth Reiss
Beacon reporter

Floyd Snoozy has spent the last few days engrossed in working on his corn planter and the tractor that pulls it, preparing to get his crops in the ground. He is eager to get into the field, remaining optimistic but still has some concerns about the upcoming crop season.
“It’s not going to be near like last year, financially,” the corn and soybean farmer said. “There’s not a lot of money to be made. I’m hoping for a break-even year, to cover the costs and hang in there.”
Snoozy starts planting in the last week of April in hopes of finishing by mid May. Many area farmers predict 2009 to be a tough year financially, but good years in 2007 and 2008 should help farmers get through.
“Last year was like having two years in one,” said Snoozy, who lives northwest of Baltic, between Colton and Dell Rapids.
Still, Snoozy has stayed positive and has even implemented some changes that will bring more efficiency and accuracy to the job. To prepare for the upcoming season, he recently installed a GPS and an auto steer system in his tractor that allows for monitoring yields, collecting seed data and memorizing the coordinates of the field to guide the tractor over the same path — for tilling, planting, spraying and harvesting—year after year.
“It’s much better than using a seed corn book,” he said. “That thing has gone through the wash a few times.”
Technology has become more commonly used in the last couple of years and can help farmers cut costs to stay profitable, said Robert Fritz, an agronomist at Hefty Seed Company outside of Baltic.
“It’s helping with some efficiency,” Fritz said. “Making them feasible has been the big change. GPS has come down in price considerably, and it’s becoming more available to everyone.”
Dell Rapids farmer Joe Geraets, like Snoozy, is paying attention to dollars but not making many changes in his crop rotation.
“I’m doing everything pretty much the same, except I don’t anticipate buying any larger or new machinery at this time,” he said. “That’s where you get into a hole in a hurry. If something goes to heck, you have to pay.”
Fritz said last year’s high market prices took the stress out of following everything to the nearest penny.
“But that stress is coming back now,” he said. “You have to watch your input costs, but at the same time, you have to put your money into things that are going to return on your investment. You can’t be cutting costs if it’s going to cut production.”
Weather this year might pose a problem. Temperatures have been in the low 20s overnight, and snow has fallen in the area recently. That could delay planting, especially for those who farm wheat, which usually is planted mid April.
“It can be a big deal, because a lot of farmers set up a cropping plan, and they make purchases based on that,” Fritz said. “Weather can come in and change that. It can disturb a lot of trends, because if the upper Midwest can’t get its planting season done, it can disrupt markets. It’s very much like a snowball rolling down a hill, building up momentum.”
Geraets, who farms corn and soybeans, said he has hasn’t made any changes because of weather, but will give it a couple week’s time before making final decisions. Some farmers might shift from corn to beans because of a later season. The later in the season that corn is planted, it loses yield potential.
“I’ve got one field where I’m beginning to wonder what I’ll do,” Geraets said. “I won’t know for a couple of weeks yet, and we’ll have to see how much moisture we get.”
Fritz said weather isn’t a situation for concern yet, because it is still early. The more moisture, the later start for planting, he said.
“Many farmers target the first of May, but many have pushed it to the middle or later part of May and have finished.”