NAPERVILLE, (Illinois): The US Crop Watch farmers have mostly wrapped up their planting except for in North Dakota, where recent rains have already reduced the producers’ corn acreage plans.
The North Dakota producer, located in the east central part of the state, has not yet started field work.
He was originally aiming to start planting on Monday, but rains last week were heavier than expected, and the area is quickly becoming wet – reminiscent of last year.
A week ago, the producer’s concerns were still relatively low, but they reached medium intensity by Friday and high intensity by Monday. In the best-case scenario, he will probably plant between 60% and 80% of the corn acres he originally planned.
But he could end up with only 20% of his planned corn acres if this week’s rains are excessive. The lost corn acres could eventually go to soybeans, but that is a big unknown given current field conditions. Lower prices are not enticing, either, and the North Dakota producer does not expect area farmers to push as hard as last year for this reason. He notes it might not be worth losing insurance coverage this year by pushing past the final planting dates, which for him are May 25 for corn, May 31 wheat and June 10 soybeans.
Soils across North Dakota are still not as saturated as a year ago, but recent rains have been poorly timed, and the saturation is expanding. This issue does not extend throughout the whole state, but the Crop Watch producer estimates roughly half the state faces his same situation.
The North Dakota producer needs several sunny and windy days to prepare the fields, which could be in store. Forecasts show midweek rain chances with a mostly dry bias over the next 10 days or so, though recent rainfall has been consistently topping expectations. Last week was busy for Crop Watch soybean planting.
The Minnesota and South Dakota fields were planted on Wednesday and Kansas and Ohio were completed on Thursday. The Ohio producer was hoping to get to his corn field on Monday, which will be the last Crop Watch field outside of North Dakota to be seeded.
Most of the Crop Watch producers are happy with how things look so far, though the Kansas and Nebraska locations remain very dry despite receiving 1.25 inches and 1 inch of rain, respectively, on different days over the weekend. Three inches of rain in southern Minnesota will cause some minor issues with corn emergence.
Two inches of rain fell on the South Dakota fields last week, making for nearly ideal conditions.
Producers in eastern Iowa, Indiana and western Illinois note that a rain could be useful. Crop Watch follows 11 corn and 11 soybean fields across nine US states, including two each in Iowa and Illinois. This is the sixth consecutive year for the project, which gathers weekly updates, photos and crop ratings from each location throughout the growing season.