Rain slows work after planting progress

Derek Niese – Putnam County

Things are wet again, and we have more rain coming, but last week we had three or four, maybe four and a half days where we could get back in the fields. I think a lot of guys around here got a lot of work done, but now we are back in the waiting game again.

If I had to guess, I would say most everyone around here is probably 75% to 85% done planting. We are about the same. We probably have one big day of corn planting and one big day of bean planting left. Tomatoes are just a little bit behind schedule, but not too bad. Next week, we have three big days of planting to catch up, and I would say we are in a pretty good spot right now.

We also have one 45-acre wheat field. It looks good, but wheat isn’t a major part of our rotation. The raspberry bushes are planted, and hopefully they are growing.

Greg Ramsey – Ross County

It’s been dry, unusually dry for May, but everything has come out of the ground, and fields are looking really good. We’re very happy with where we are right now. We got a half an inch of rain two nights ago, which has really made a big difference, and I think the corn is going to really jump, and things are going to start filling in.

As of right now, I’m sitting in the tractor side dressing corn, trying to get a little bit done before we get our next round of rain. We’re trying to keep pushing forward, but all in all, things are going well, and I’m pretty happy with how everything looks.

In our immediate area, it seems like everywhere around us, especially north toward Columbus, received either an inch or two of rain, but we seem to be in the dry spot for now. They’re projecting another inch to two inches over the whole weekend, and as long as it doesn’t come really, really fast, that’ll be a welcome thing.

The wheat is still progressing. We’ve kind of had it pegged at about two weeks ahead of normal all spring, and I think it’s going to continue that. Quality looks good. I don’t think the frost hurt us, and I don’t think there’s much concern for head scab at the moment.

Matt Hartong – Summit County

We did manage to get some corn in the ground here the last few days. Luckily, the weather has kind of held off, and I think we’ve gotten most of our silage corn planted. So that’s always a good sign.

Every year, we really try to plan on getting it in before June. This weekend kind of looks like a wash, which is unfortunate, but next week looks pretty dry. We’re kind of trying to get ready for anything we could potentially do next week, and hopefully we’ll cross that halfway mark with everything we’re planning.

It’s definitely a relief when you can kind of get those breaks and go and get the corn in the ground.

We just have our silage corn in right now, but I would like to get some beans in before June. We’re also kind of halfway through our first cutting of alfalfa, so we’ll have to make a decision whether we’re going to go out and mow hay or plant corn first.

Melissa Clark – Miami County

We’ve just gotten a lot of rain. We’ve probably gotten another three inches of rain in the last week, so there has been some flooding in some of the fields. But overall, we still can’t complain about how our stuff looks.

It has drained as well as it can, considering how much rain we received. Right now, the biggest issue is that we need to get across the fields and spray, especially corn, but the wet weather has kept us from doing that. Overall, that’s where things stand.

We also got our replant stuff done, so that is completed. We just spot planted some stuff on our farms. There were some people who went out and did full replants, but we pretty much just spotted in what we could and decided what was worth running over versus kind of living with it. I think a lot of it we decided to live with.

At this point, I don’t see the planters getting back in the field for any reason unless we get decimated. For now, it is just wet, and we are waiting for the next window to get back across the fields.