Has spring finally arrived?

Joe Everett

We got a lot of rain like the rest of Ohio did. Where we farm, we got anywhere from 1.5 to 2 inches depending on where you’re standing. Yesterday and today we’ve had better weather and going into the week it looks like we could get back into the field mid-week.

We started planting April 24 and got in a few days of planting. We actually planted up until May 2. Everything seems to be doing alright so far. We actually have some corn and soybeans starting to spike that we planted on that first day planting.

Right in our area, we had a lot of people who got started planting and getting in the fields, but if you get too far out of our area that number drops off pretty quickly. I think we are still pretty good on timing. Last year we got in so early that it feels a little late right now. It is only the beginning of May and there is still a lot of time to get crops in.

Everything I have looked at so far looks good. The seeds haven’t been in the ground too long yet and hopefully this good weather ahead will give them a better start here in the next week. It looks like we’ll have good weather up until the weekend, so hopefully we’ll at least get a couple days in the field here shortly. 

If we get everything running smooth, we can make a good dent in a short time. We can run both our bean and corn planter at the same time which can help you get a lot of crops in the ground quickly. We had some fields ready to go and some not ready and I think my dad and uncle wore off a set of tires on their trucks just trying to find a place to go. When we get in the mode to plant, we want to plant. Just like every farmer, you get excited and you want to get out there, but it has just not been fit. Hopefully we can get out there shortly. We have most of our ground that has been worked planted with corn, so we have some ground to work ahead. Once we get back in fields, we’ll start on that and when the stalks dry out, we’ll plant beans then get back to planting corn. 

Kurt Wyler

It is definitely starting to dry out around here. We had 3 inches of rain last week and it has been pretty wet here for the last couple of days. The week before, the ground was getting in great shape and was the driest it had been in a good while. A lot of guys were able to get out in the fields and get stuff done. There was some planting. We were pretty busy spreading fertilizer, spraying and hauling manure. The guys were spreading pen-pack cattle manure, hauling chicken litter and we had somebody tanking some hog manure on for us.

We just mowed our rye down yesterday. Right now we are working on mowing orchardgrass. We wet wrap 90% of our hay. We’ll go through and bale it up with a round baler with a roto-cut in it and we have an Anderson tuber and in-line tube it all.  We are hoping we can mow it before it starts heading out to get the highest possible feed quality. This is pretty good timing, but the rye was just getting ready to shoot some heads. We would have maybe liked to have gotten it mowed a few days earlier, but it is definitely better than the timing last year. Hopefully we can get this all made this week. 

It is going to be a busy week with hopefully pretty nice weather. There is no rain in the forecast until next weekend. There are definitely still some soft spots out here. We are hoping to get some more spraying done. Hopefully we can also start planting some beans this week. 

Last week it was rainy and cold and we are still plenty early so I doubt we’ll plant much corn yet this week. It has been frustrating, but there is not a whole lot we can do about it. We are getting antsy to get out in the fields.

Ryan Hiser

Things have really improved in the last 48 hours. We have gotten out of the rainy habit we’ve had to deal with. In some areas of the county we got over 3 inches in the last week. It will be interesting to see how soon it will dry up.

It will take us 5 days to a week to get dried up to plant. We were able to get out and get a little bit planted — just enough to get the planter set up. It was fit and we decided to get it planted. This sunshine this week will be a key factor in getting that crop up. If the water gets off of it, I think we’ll be alright there. Other than that, we were able to work some of these clodded fields down in some chisel plowed ground. We were able to finish up some tillage and clean some things up around the farm.

We are planning on no-till for a lot of this ground so we have to wait for the right conditions to be able to get in there and plant. But based on the amount of rain we got, we may be dealing with too many weeds. Because of that, we may have to go through and hit fields with a field cultivator instead of no-till. 

The weather looks dry for the week with temperatures in the mid- to upper-70s and lows in the 50s. We need all the sunshine we can get and some wind to dry out. There are some small chances of rain next week. 

Usually in the past we have gone out to the farthest point away to plant and then worked our way back towards the farm. That way we can get some of the long distance running out of the way first and help ourselves in the long run, especially if we get in a situation where we need to get a lot of acres run really quickly. But we also have to watch what ground is going to be ready at what time to be able to get in and get the job done. 

Nathan Birkemeier

It is nice to see some warm weather and some sunshine. It is definitely welcome. We have not had rain for a couple of days now and it is just starting to dry off, which is exciting. In the last rain, we got about an inch and half. There is still water in the low places, but that should disappear by the middle of the week.

The forecast looks really good. We’re looking at the lower 80s for all of this week and some wind pretty much every day. Things could look really good, and by Thursday or Friday, the sandier soils and systematically tiled fields could be planted. We may have some ground we can get across and we can hopefully get some spraying done if the wind dies down and we may have a couple of small fields we can get started planting this week.

There are a couple of fields here and there with some corn planted. There is a lot of anhydrous on in the area, but for the most part there is not a lot in the ground here. With planting, we can hopefully start knocking some corn acres out and go one day at a time and hopefully get some sleep when we can. I’m sure some people have been getting aggravated with the weather, but there has not been much pushing because the temperatures have been so low. Now that we are finally getting some heat and I think everyone is looking forward to spring weather. Spring just seems a little later this and hopefully the fall weather will be a little later and we’ll have the same amount of growing season, just pushed back a little bit. 

Hopefully the wet weather gave everyone a chance to relax and focus on getting things together for this week. There have definitely been some guys who have been bitten after planting on Mother’s Day in the past and that did not happen this year.