Ready for a May turnaround

FAIRBURY – Growers had a nice run of spring planting in April and are hoping the May weather turns around soon.

After the good start to the season, many only have another week or two before wrapping-up planting. This year did provide an opportunity for some farmers to plant early soybeans.

“I do feel for a long time, we had just as many if not more beans planted in this area than we did corn,” admits Brad Schmidgall, plant manager for Brandt in Fairbury.

The active weather pattern as of late that has brought us rain is not uncommon for this time of year but all of the cool temperatures are a bit unusual. These conditions have kept the soils cooler and wetter than we like to see during planting season.

“I hope we get some heat to turn things around and I’m sure we’ll find dry fields soon – we’ll just take it as we can,” said Schmidgall.

Schmidgall suggests keeping an eye on seeds that are in the ground as some of those seeds have been there quite a while as coolness has delayed the growing process.

“The seeds that we have dug and the things we have looked at seem to be progressing normally.”

This year has required plenty of patience which can be hard to come by during planting. Although weed control methods could change after all of the recent rain, Schmidgall hopes to proceed with the plans that are in place in order to continue on with the 2020 growing season.