Area farmers are looking at some long, hard days whenever fields get dry enough to plant corn.
Corn planting hereabouts usually starts in late March and is completed by mid-April, but this spring’s wet, cold weather has kept farmers at bay. Another dose arrived late this week, just when some fields were about dry enough to work.
“We’re way behind,” said Doug Strickler, who intends to plant several hundred acres of corn. “I like to be done with corn by April 15, and so far I’ve been able to plant maybe 15 percent. I planted it before the hail storm (in mid-April) and about 75 percent of it is up.”
Corn has maturity rates that range from 90 to 115 days, and with later planting, particularly of longer-season varieties, tasseling (pollination stage) occur toward the end of July.
“That’s the biggest problem” of late planting, Strickler said. “By then it’s likely to be hot and dry and tasseling will be hurt.”
That will lead to ears trying to fill in mid-August, also a time when hot and dry weather can be expected to dominate.
“Anytime the temperature is over 86 degrees, it’s stressful for corn,” Strickler observed. Key times in a plant’s life is tasseling and then when ears and their kernels are filling out.
Insurance companies recognize the problem of putting corn seed in the ground this late in the season.
“May 15 is the last day that insurance will pay 100 percent,” Strickler noted. “Any planted from there on, the percentage of insurance coverage drops” for corn damaged by weather.
While insurance companies use actuarial studies to determine coverage, late-planted corn occasionally does well. Dick Works, who grows corn and soybeans west of Humboldt, commented this week that some of his best-producing corn last year came from a stand replanted in late May.
But, on the average, corn planted that late has a tough go with what’s normally expected of Kansas summers.
Strickler said fertilizer has been applied to his fields and equipment is ready to roll, just as soon as “the mud holes dry up. I don’t want to plant part of a field and then have to go back when the rest of it dries up,” he said.
There is a possibility of rain today, but the long-range forecast is for mostly dry and warmer weather the next two weeks.
When fields dry, a planting frenzy will ensue, both of corn and then soybeans.
“Once we get in the fields, we’ll be working well into the night,” Strickler said, noting that technology today takes the guess work out of tracking equipment to the point that darkness isn’t a problem.
On a large field close to home, Strickler figures he can plant 250 acres a day, and 180 acres or more “if we have to move equipment a time or two.”
Even though wet weather has delayed planting, there is an upside.
“We have plenty of sub-soil moisture,” Strickler said, which will have newly planted corn sprouting quickly and provide receptive seedbeds for soybeans, next on the planting agenda.
Moisture always is the key to farming.
It’s slowing farmers right now, but once corn and beans are up and growing, farmers’ concern will be moisture to nurture and complete growth of the two cash crops in July and August.
Wheat, including his, looks good, Strickler said.
Area farmers apparently dodged a cold bullet last night. The temperature dropped to 34 and shouldn’t have had an impact of wheat.
The critical point for wheat is 28 degrees, Strickler said.
Damp weather delays corn
