(La Porte County, IN) - The much anticipated spring planting has begun for some farmers but others are still waiting for their fields to dry out enough from weeks of wet weather.
Farmer Jeff Mitzner of Wanatah said he started Sunday with the key being a several day let up in the heavy rains that gave the sandier soils in his fields ample time to dry out.
“Field conditions down here in southern La Porte County are probably just about perfect right now,” he said.
Mitzner said he was able to get about 100 acres of soybeans and 120 acres of corn planted before chased out of his fields when it started raining heavily again early Monday afternoon.
Farmer Matt Schafer of LaCrosse said he started planting soybeans last week and corn a few days later on Saturday in his sandier soils. Schafer estimated he had roughly 600 acres of soybeans planted and just over 200 acres of corn in the ground before the Monday storms forced him out of his fields.
“Quite a ways to go. Just getting a good start,” he said.
Farmer Mark Parkman of Westville was waiting to plant his first seeds because his corn and soybean fields containing a lot of clay in the soil were still too wet. Clay being less porous than sand takes longer to dry out. There are some areas in his fields that might be dry enough but he doesn’t want to take any chances with seed rot which can form over time in ground containing too much moisture especially in cool temperatures.
Planting when conditions are too wet can also stunt the growth of plants by not allowing their roots to spread as freely due to the soil being compacted.
“Most of our ground is still fairly wet. I got a few places where we could probably go but we haven’t been pushing it because it is so wet,” he said.
Parkman said he doesn’t know of any farmers that have started dropping seeds in his area since the soil there has a lot of clay but he saw a lot of planters in fields over the weekend just a few miles to the south where the ground begins to contain more sand.
He also said the storm on Monday, depending on how much rains falls, could further delay the start of planting for him and other farmers who haven’t begun until early May, if not longer, if the forecast for cooler weather over the next several days proves accurate. Cool weather slows the evaporation rate in fields and can prohibit seeds from germinating depending on the temperatures.
Parkman said it’s more critical for him to wait since his soils contain a lot of clay, which is not as forgiving to seeds planted early as sand.
“For me, it’s more important for the ground conditions to be right. If it’s too wet, you have problems and you fight it all year long. We’d rather be just a little patient,” he said.
Many farmers in southwest Michigan with heavy clay in the soil have also not started planting due to lingering wet fields.
“It’s too wet,” said Carrie Pastryk, store manager at Seifert’s Farm Supply in Three Oaks.
