Sights and Sounds of Spring Planting

Sara Muri, AgWeb Crops Online Editor

Are you wondering how farmers in the next county over, a state away or in a different corner of the country are doing this spring? Then look no further than AgWeb’s Crop Comments. You can watch and listen to video and audio reports, read farmers’ comments and view photos of Spring Planting 2009.

Video Crop Reports

Planting in Photos

Crop Reports from 25 Different States

4/23 - Northeast Madison County, Alabama: Most of the Cotton land went to Corn in 2007-08 and went to Wheat last fall. It looks good. 30 % of the dirt is waiting for good planting conditions for corn and We have been Wet and Cold. Half of my crop land ( In S. Ky.) is in good wheat and the balance is waiting for good planting conditions for corn (Maybe- But not at $165.00/bu seed corn and the current prices for fertilizer.) Thinking about just ‘Shutting down’ for a couple of years. Maybe take that Alaska Cruise with my wife of 46 years.


3/31 - Northeast Arkansas: Most farmers in this area are on crop rent. 1/4 rent is common in cotton and rice, 1/3 on soybeans and wheat. Corn which is new to our area goes somewhere in between.


5/8 - Greely, Colorado: Producers have been blessed with abundant moisture this year.


5/8 - Muscogee County, Georgia: It is going to be while before we plant - anything . Nothing but mud. Last year this time we could not buy a drop of rain.


4/14 - Nez Perce County, Idaho: Finished planting small grains today and hope to have legumes planted by the end of this week. There is average moisture for the first time in many years and warmer weather is on the horizon which should get the Spring crops up and out of the ground in a hurry. It looks like snow is falling in some of the upper elevations here as I write this. Fall small grains look very good with lots of water in the profile to help them get through any warm periods that always seem to come along in late April and early May.


4/28 - St. Clair/Madison Counties, Southwest Illinois: Lots of field activity the past 36 hours. A bit of corn planted, but very limited to a few small well drained fields. I would put NH3 application at 70% and corn planting at 1%. A few fields of wheat getting sprayed, but that is mostly over. Rain all over the radar headed our way so this is another short lived window.


4/30 - Delaware County, Indiana: Just dumped 1.4” of rain out of the gauge this morning, and is still raining. Some corn got planted Monday, but most planters were parked waiting for dryer conditions. Hopefully next week will give us a dry forecast.


5/11 - South Central Iowa: Almost had all of the beans in the ground...and I ripped the marker of the planter with 17 acres to go! The finish line for planting this year was so close...but I guess it wouldn’t be Spring on our farm without a major break down some where along the line! I guess we have been blessed to have good windows of opportunity between rains so we can get the planting and pre-emerge spraying done. We are keeping you guys who can’t get in the fields in our prayers...things will clear up and you will make it in. Corn planted April 16th is probably V2-V3 stage and looks pretty good so far.


5/1 - Reno County, South Central Kansas: Started corn last Thursday the 23rd. Got rained out and have only seen more rain since. Drizzling today. I’m guessing about 25% planted in this area which is way behind average. I also have not been able to burn down fields due to wet conditions and wind and the weeds are getting out of control. Wheat looks good.


5/11 - St. Mary’s County, Maryland: Had 6.5 inches of rain last four days with marble size hail, will have to replant corn planted on April 14, called insurance for replant.


4/30 - Gratiot County, Central Michigan: Very, very wet. We received 4+ inches of rain Saturday and Sunday. Most of the ditches were running full. Many county drains were bubbling up. We still have water standing over top of catch basins. Looks like the middle of next week before anyone will be able to be back into the fields.
We had started out great with many sugar beets being planted in almost ideal conditions the first couple of weeks of April. Most of the sugar beets are planted with very little corn if any being planted. Soil temperatures this morning was 49 degrees. Still very early for corn planting in our area and most is planted between the last week of April and the first two weeks of May.


5/7 - Houston County, Minnesota: It is finally raining here. We were designated moderate to severe drought. To those of you drowning in rain south of us, we feel your pain and hope things begin to look up. We almost finished the corn planting but were rained out last night. Just looked at the radar and saw a whopper out there training along the Iowa, Minnesota boarder. Those are the gully washers for us. There are countless new waterways out there, just seeded down, that won’t take much water. We are still trying to repair from the floods last June. No hurry to put in the beans. None planted here yet. The ground is too cold. We have never seen the pastures take this long to recover from winter. They just don’t grow. They aren’t dead, just cold nights setting them back. Our grain from 08 is still all in the bins. We sit and wait....

4/29 - Southeast Missouri, Mississippi County: Lots of corn went in the ground over the weekend, finally WAS starting to dry out. Got 1.8" last night with good (or bad?) chances of rain all week. We were on the verge of wet anyway and this would shut us down for a week alone much less any more precip. I still have almost half my corn to plant but figure with this wet week most of the low ground will now be switched back to beans, hate it but just can’t keep planting corn all year and I really don’t like to mess with grain sorghum!


4/27 - Stillwater County, Montana: Most farmers he have not started fieldwork yet. It is too wet. It almost gets dry enough and then it snows again. This is the best moisture that I have seen in a decade.


4/24 - Seward County, Nebraska: Near ideal conditions here. Some producers finished with corn and now onto beans. Soil conditions very good, subsoil moisture good. Only negative very dry for the first 4 months of the year. Supposed to rain this weekend.


5/11 - North Central North Dakota: Ground completely covered in SNOW this A.M. I drove the ATV 34 miles across fields on 7000 acres couldn’t find 20 acres in one spot to work on; we have a real mess on our hands. Need a week of warm windy weather and that’s not in the forecast. Be safe out there!!


5/7 - Northwest Ohio: Walked fields today, soybeans going into corn stalks at least a weak away, corn going into bean stubble 4 to 5 days away going to try working deep washouts shut in 3 days providing sunshine and wild blows. Not much going on just too wet.

4/21 - Blaine County, Northwest Oklahoma: Insurance adjusters are starting to zero out wheat (.5 bu). Damage is much worse than people realize. Even November planted wheat is starting to turn yellow.


4/15 - Mercer County, Pennsylvania: We are ready to start grazing ryegrass fields. Still 2 to 3 three weeks from normal corn and bean planting, some ground plowed early March. Manure spreaders are moving again this week.


5/11 - Perkins County, Northwest South Dakota: Was finally able to start on spring wheat yesterday. Got 90 acres seeded between showers and today it’s been raining steady all day. Lots of standing water again. Next week looks wet off and on all week. Last year was finished with the wheat by the middle of April.

4/7 - Lauderdale County, Tennessee: No spraying—too windy. No planting--- too cold. No field work—too wet.


4/22 - Erath County, Texas: Corn planted and so far had some timely rains. Wheat very poor ,cutting some for hay this week just to clean the field.


4/13 - Cache County, Utah: Still too wet in northern Utah, winter wheat is starting to green up, at least what didn’t winter kill. Probably lost 30% due to spotty snow mold from strange winter with lots of snow and freezing rain storms building layers of ice. Guess I’ll roll the dice and hope it’s a good enough stand to make a crop. Best of luck to everyone...


4/6 - South Franklin County, Eastern Washington State: We have had adequate winter moisture. March was the second wettest month in thirty-seven years of records. Early seeded winter wheat looks good. Need some much needed warm weather. Crop is about two weeks behind average growth.


5/4 - Green, Lafayette Counties, Southwest Wisconsin: Rain has idled most everyone the last two days. Looking for a good weekend (dry). I still remember the good old days when dad was super happy to have started corn by the first of May instead of talking about being done. Sometimes wonder if we are all better off running like a chicken with their heads cut off... Be safe and have a nice weekend.


Canada
5/8 - Ottawa Valley, Eastern Ontario, Canada: Rain today has stopped the corn planters. About 50% of the corn in this area planted. Lots of alfalfa winterkill especially down near the Quebec border. Spring wheat was mostly planted April 20-30 and is now up. A few soys planted but not much. Most of the big guys are mostly done corn and the smaller dairy and livestock guys are just nicely getting started. We will probably be delayed for 2-3 days because of this rain.

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You can e-mail Sara Muri at smuri@farmjournal.com.