Frustrating early spring gives way to rapid late planting progress
By Matt Reese
It has been a very frustrating planting season for Adam Kirian and his brother on their Hancock County farm.
The cool, moist conditions from March through mid-May were great for the wheat, but not for much of anything else on the corn, soybean, hay, fresh produce, and cattle operation.
“I made a joke a couple of days ago and said that I wished we had planted everything to wheat because it looks excellent. We had a cool damp spring and it was favorable for the wheat. There is a lot of fungicide going on right now as we get closer to filling grain. I would say we are 40 or 45 days at least away from wheat harvest. It is starting to warm up right now,” said Adam Kirian on May 26. “We didn’t get any corn in the ground until May 20. We started working ground the day before on the well-drained stuff. As we have gotten some heat, things have really gotten nice. We finished up our own corn planting last night and we are doing some custom work now. Hopefully we should have some beans going in the ground this afternoon. By the middle of next week, with the looks of the forecast, we should have everything in the ground. There were times in April where the ground was dry and we planted some sweet corn. We had issues getting it to emerge, though, because of the cool temperatures. We had problems with too much moisture but the ground temperature was as big of a problem this spring.”
While the cool and wet conditions kept planters out of the field, the wheat continued to thrive after a mild winter and good growing conditions the previous fall.
“The wheat really looks good. As far as ground moisture, we have a fair amount to help fill the heads out with grain. The big thing is that we have gotten so warm and so humid so quickly after being so cool all spring that disease is going to be a bigger issue. You are seeing a lot of preventative maintenance spraying around...(To read more, click the link below):
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