Farmers Off To Slow Start Planting Crops

Some Wisconsin corn growers are still waiting to get into their wet fields to plant their crops.

Thanks to recent heavy rains, and late season snow, this has been one of the longest planting delays in Wisconsin history. Farmers in the central and northeast parts of the state have waited especially long.

Farmers usually plant their corn in early May. Joe Lauer is an agronomist with the University of Wisconsin-Extension service. He says the later farmers seed their corn fields, the more likely that some of the plants won’t mature in time for harvest in the fall.

“If you compare the yield you get on May 1, versus the yield you get on June 1….you plant on those days, you could lose 30 percent of your yield.”

Farmers in Fond Du Lac County are trying to avoid that fate. Extension Agent Mike Rankin says most fields have dried. Farmers are trying to make up for lost time.

“We can plant quite a few acres in a really short amount of time. I’m still hopeful we can get most of the crop in in reasonably good shape and hope for a late fall.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service says, as of last weekend, corn was 43 percent planted in Wisconsin. That is far below the 68 percent at this time last year.