Started Planting

It is very tacky here to plant like I read from my friends in central Illinois. We planted enough to know it is wet. It has been too cool to break down much residue and there are very few weeds, reflecting the hard winter we had. It is too windy to spray if you did plant.

I wouldn't want to risk many acres at this point, two sweet corn plantings have been failures for me. If I plant more today it could turn out the same way even with the heat and wind we have had this weekend. It is just too cold and damp underneath no matter how you plant.

It is still good for nursery plantings and the new plants seem to be taking off well. That forecast seems to continue which is great for nursery plants but not good for heat loving crops like corn.

Sweet corn growers have shared with me their failures too, plastic is a must in these conditions and many growers are like gardeners, they are not set up to plant in plastic film.

Everything will have to be evaluated on a field by field basis and nothing is what I call good planting conditions yet. I have examined many fields in the region over the weekend and it is hard to broadcast fertilizer without cutting a rut somewhere in a field as I said, too windy to do much spraying.

So if you did get anything planted, how are you going to get it sprayed?

I think the swine flu breakout was a big player in the overnight markets. Grains were down. There is much nervousness from the fields in the Midwest to the Marketplace.

The weather forecast looks like potential for lots of moisture this week which will make things worse, not better.

The joys of farming!

I hope things are better your direction because they aren't very good here.

Ed