Farmers in southeast Iowa are ground truthing conditions to plant.
“Worms are all up in there working,” says Brian Hora, a farmer in Washington County, Iowa, as he’s kneeling down and looking at soil conditions. “That worm is right in there with that plant, and at the base of that plant. But here are you getting to see all the holes where they’re at? That’s what gets our water down in the ground.”
Hora is digging in, discovering a nice soil bed prime for planting.
“It’s cold and it’s wet; it’s 46 degrees,” says Hora. “We’re a little ways away from planting.”
With cold and snow hitting parts of Iowa this week, Hora is glad they haven’t been in a rush to plant.
“Everything’s at a standstill at the moment,” he adds. “We’re a little slow getting started, but waiting for things to warm up a little bit would be the biggest issue. And also to dry a little bit. “
And for the Horas, not much field work has danced across their Iowa soils so far. They planted a few acres this past weekend, but they haven’t been able to get in the field much due to the cold and wet conditions this year.
“There’s some interest in maybe terminating cover crops, but it’s too cold to do that,” says Hora. “It’s really too cold to plant, either corn or beans. So, we’re just kind of waiting for a little break in the weather here.”
As Hora waits to plant, it’s a similar situation just down the road.
“If this particular spot gets dry enough for me, I know this field will be ready to plant,” explains Brian Scheetz, a farmer in Washington County, Iowa. “This is usually the wettest spot of the field.”
Sheetz says the 2021 planting season hasn’t really started on their farm yet.
“It’s been pretty slow,” says the Iowa farmer. “We’re just holding, waiting anxiously to get to the field and get started.”
With dry and warm days sprinkled in, Sheetz says there haven’t been enough of those days to plant yet.
“I’m looking for ground to be dried off, and I was hoping to maybe start planting today,” Sheetz said last week. “But we’ve just had two days here, just kind of cloudy, colder weather. And it’s just not drying enough.”
USDA’s latest Crop Progress Report released Monday shows 4% of Iowa’s corn crop is in the ground, one point behind average. But none of the crop has emerged.
And overall, Iowa farmers are slightly ahead on soybean planting, with 1% of the crop in the ground. Typically, soybean planting hasn’t started yet.
“If the temperatures in the forecast were better, we would be considering it,” says Scheetz. “We’re a little too wet to plant right now. But in a few days, it might get fit if it would warm up.”
“Most of my ground is conservation tillage,” says Hora. “We basically got 450 acres of soybean ground knocked down and chemical applied. Since then, it has just been kind of in a wet, cold pattern.”
As area farmers debate when to plant, the Horas say planting into cover crops is a system that works.
“We like planting into the green cover crop,” Hora adds. “We think our planter does a better job of planting and cutting through the green material. And when we’ve got wheat out there, the wheat will grow….makes it a lot easier to plant into.”
It’s a conservation system that works for the Hora family, but one that continues to rely on Mother Nature.
“I guess the calendar says it’s time, and if we can get the field to dry out just a little bit more, we’ll probably start easing into it,” says Hora.
Improved commodity prices also mean the decision on when to plant comes with added weight this year.
“That’s partly why I am kind of dragging my feet yet just a little bit on planting, because I want to try to get the best potential out there,” says Sheetz. “Yet we know earlier is usually better than later. I don’t want to miss a window.”
As these farmers wait on a window to plant, 2021 is still met with an optimistic view.
“Looking ahead at 2021, it looks bright,” says Sheetz. “I’m a little concerned on where these prices are going to end up for inputs as we start rolling into 2022.”
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