Area Farmers Now Focus on Planting

After heavy rain, scattered snow, and widely varied temperatures during the past month, area farmers are making up for lost time by getting a significant amount of planting done this week. Angie Rieck-Hinz, a field agronomist with the Iowa State University Extension in north-central Iowa, says many producers in her region have struggled with weather conditions that were far from ideal.

The USDA crop report that came out earlier this week showed soybean planting was at 27%, compared to 11% the week before, while corn plantings had bounded from 22% to 42%. Rieck Hinz is expecting more excellent numbers in the remainder of this week, as long as the weather holds.

Temperatures have been particularly uncooperative for planting, with 80-degrees one day and temps dropping below freezing the next day. Rieck Hinz is hoping things have stabilized for the time-being.

Speaking of rain, she says growers in the Story City area got around seven inches of rain during April, which is well above average, and some areas got even more.