This year’s unusual cold spring has delayed the start of the planting season. At this time last year farmers had already begun to turn dirt and spread fertilizers. This year, planting may come as late as early May.
Area farmers have to wait on soil temperatures to improve and that has a lot to do with the weather. National Weather Service Meteorologist Rod Donovan in Johnston believes that the next couple of weeks are not that promising.
Randy Broesder, Director of the Farmers Coop in Forest City says that the ground is far too cold to plant corn at this point, but he believes that the area farmers will get to work if they get a window to work with.
According to Broesder, farmers are not too worried about the situation, but the closer it gets to May 10th, the more the concern will rise. Worth County ISU Extension Specialist Dennis Johnson explains why.
If the National Weather Service is correct, it appears that the second week in May could be the window that area farmers are looking for to get corn in the ground. They will still have to put fertilizers and chemicals into the ground too.
