Wet Spring Planting

Wet Spring Planting

Rick Worthington
Rick Worthington
Wet Spring Planting

With the farm and ranch report I'm Rick Worthington.

A wetter than normal spring has some farmers racing the clock to get corn and soybean crops in the ground to make the most of their growing time. You see, for some farmers last week was actually the first time they were able to get to their fields and plant.

Corn expert Dr. Bob Nielsen says waiting for optimal conditions is a safer bet that you'll get a healthier stand of corn.

soils are typically warmer than they are in late April and that usually means we get a higher success rate of getting more of the seeds germinated and growing into plants and so that does give us the opportunity to back off on seeding rates a little bit and save a little bit of seed costs and yet still get the same final population that we were aiming for in the first place but cool wet weather focus the farm conservation on delayed planting. Conventional wisdom says early planting is best but there's a downside to that as well.

Soils are still reasonably cool and that means the germination takes a longer time and emergence takes longer and that initial sound establishment takes more days. That often translates to a lower success rate of getting every seed up and going and becoming plants spring planting really is a high pressure time of year for farmers especially since the weather plays such a major role.

Experts say planting corn is much more about timing than it is with soybeans because beans are much more resilient.

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