(La Porte County, IN) - Farmers in the area don’t seem too concerned yet about a delay in spring planting despite fields with standing water following several inches of rain last week.

 

“It’s definitely plenty wet out there,” said Mark Parkman, a farmer raising corn, soybeans, wheat and cattle near Westville.

 

“Very saturated field conditions,” said Matt Schafer, who raises corn and soybeans in the LaCrosse area.

 

Farmers throughout northern Indiana were in their fields applying fertilizer, spraying and doing other things to prepare their fields for spring planting until three inches or more of rain came down early last week.  Another roughly two inches of rain came down over the weekend.

 

Fields are too muddy right now to resume field preparations with many farmers preferring to start planting corn and soybeans as soon as mid-April.

 

Schafer said he’s just now becoming a little concerned about an extended planting season from wondering when the ground will be dry enough for farmers to finish preparing the soil so they begin planting seed given the weather extremes.

 

“It’s going to be a long while,” he said.

 

Parkman said he isn’t too worried about any delays right now because of how weather conditions this time of year can quickly change from cold and wet to dry and warm.  He said it doesn’t take long for soil to dry out enough to get back in the fields with a few consecutive days of 75 to 80 degree weather and wind.

 

However, Schafer said a recent pattern of frequent precipitation continuing at least for the near future seems to be in the forecast.  Nevertheless, Schafer said there’s still time for the weather to become more favorable for planting to  finish on schedule.

 

If there are any delays, he said farmers given the technology nowadays can get a lot of planting done during a short window to make up for the lost time.

 

“No reason to panic yet, but we seem to be fighting it from a weather standpoint right now,” he said.