With 2025-2026 winter predictions suggesting the Midwest is in for a wet season, it’s important to anticipate possible growing-season challenges and manage around them. Here’s what you need to know about the challenges posed by excessive winter moisture and the management strategies you can implement to mitigate risks.
Top challenges posed by a wet Midwest winter
If conditions this winter are especially damp, your farm could face several hurdles to overcome. Here are the top challenges to monitor closely.
Soil moisture effect on field operations and planting
Saturated soil can prevent field access, creating challenging corn planting conditions and delaying planting. There is often a correlation between planting in the optimal time window and higher yields. For example, the period from mid-April to mid-May is generally recommended for Iowa corn planting, though other conditions must be right as well. For example, soil temperatures should be greater than 50 F and trending upward.1
The window is similar for soybeans. With both crops, planting into waterlogged soil isn’t advised because it can delay or prevent emergence, encourage disease and necessitate replanting. Optimal moisture for soybeans, by contrast, looks like planting into about 0.5” of damp soil.2
Proper seed treatment can provide added protection to seeds to encourage good stand establishment.
Seedling emergence challenges
Excessive soil moisture can also pose a threat to corn and soybean seedlings after germination. Excessive moisture slows emergence, increases emergence variability and can result in uneven stands with lower yield potential for both crops. If you try to “mud in” your crop, it can cause problems with root development and make it difficult for crops to take up nutrients from the soil.
Increased disease pressure
Wet and cool soils favor soilborne pathogens such as Pythium, Rhizoctonia, Fusarium and Phytophthora root rot in corn and soybeans. If your crop experiences delayed emergence or overall poor emergence, it can give these and other diseases more time to get a foothold and infect seedlings.
Fungicides can help you mitigate the risk of soilborne pathogens amid high soil moisture.
Insect pest and weed pressure in wet conditions
Excess moisture favors insect pests such as seed corn maggot and black cutworm. The later you plant, the greater the risk of insect pest infestation.
Delayed planting due to weather conditions can complicate applications of pre-emergence herbicide as well (especially in no-till operations). If weeds begin to emerge before herbicide application, the effectiveness of your application will be reduced and create a more competitive weed cover. Insect pests and weeds go hand in hand as these established weeds can also harbor insect infestations.
Wet conditions can also create the unintended challenge of explosive cover crop growth. For example, if wet conditions delay burndown of cover crops such as winter rye exponentia cover-crop growth in mid to late May can create excess biomass that can be detrimental to the following crop.3
Soil condition considerations
If 2025-2026 winter predictions hold true and high soil moisture persists, you could experience several soil problems. Compaction, erosion or reduced soil biological activity are all possibilities. Regular crop rotation can ensure a healthy soil ecosystem. Planting cover crops can preserve soil moisture and keep soil in place to avoid erosion.
Wet winter management recommendations
Get ahead of potential problems caused by a wet Midwest winter like soil moisture and saturated soil by implementing the following practices:
- Scout and conduct stand assessments to determine when and where to replant.
- Integrate fungicide seed treatments, which can help reduce seedling loss and improve stand establishment. Pay special attention to selecting the right fungicide seed treatments for high-risk fields. The 2024 BASF Seed Treatment Reference Guide is a great starting point for making these decisions.
- Look for disease-resistant corn and soybean varieties, rotate your crops regularly and conduct timely pest management.
- Adapt your use of herbicides, nutrients and cover crops as needed to account for unusually wet conditions.
Experts are available to help you make your planting decisions after a wet Midwest winter. Reach out to your seed retailer, a nearby extension office agent or a seed company professional like your regional BASF representative.
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Endnotes
- Licht, Mark, and Zachary Clemens. “Corn and Soybean Planting Date Considerations.” Integrated Crop Management (Iowa State Univ. Extension), 1 Apr. 2021, crops.extension.iastate.edu/post/corn-and-soybean-planting-date-considerations. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
- Kersten, Rich. “Causes of Variable and Delayed Soybean Emergence.” Michigan State University Extension, 29 Apr. 2021, www.canr.msu.edu/news/causes-of-variable-and-delayed-soybean-emergence. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
- Kleinschmidt, Thomas, and Kelly Reider. “Thinking Cover Crops: Winter Rye Between Corn and Soybean.” South Dakota State University Extension, extension.sdstate.edu/thinking-cover-crops-winter-rye-between-corn-and-soybean. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
