Occasional rain 'blessing in disguise'

COOKSVILLE – Despite all of the rain during the past few weeks, crops don’t look too bad across the area.

Just a few weeks ago, corn and soybeans were struggling to break through the hard ground but that has changed now.

“We had a nice rain there toward the end of the week before Mother’s Day,” explained Doug Matlock, the Brandt Cooksville plant manager. “It was a blessing in disguise – everything just popped through the ground and it got warmer on us.”

Matlock says his location has received around four inches of rain in the past two weeks so growers have been struggling to get back into the fields. He has measured 10 inches overall in the last 30 days.

“We’ve got to look at the positives too as it looks like it’s going to dry up and we are going to finish getting the corn and beans in the ground.”

After finishing the pre-plant spraying, Matlock anticipates transitioning directly to post spraying crops and side-dress nitrogen applications. Many acres have already received a pre-plant chemical application and should be in good shape, although a few went ahead and planted without spraying first. Those areas will need to be sprayed first.