Wet weather woes continue

As the door closes on one of the weirdest – and wettest – planting seasons in recent memory, Ron Marshel offered an assessment of the situation.

“It’s real wet out there,” deadpanned the Fayette County Farm Bureau manager.
And in addition to the soggy conditions – up to 4 inches of rain fell late last week in some parts of the county – he said that some farmers have reported crop damage from hail and wind.
“We definitely didn’t need all that,” he said.
Nevertheless, the planting process is nearly complete.
“Corn planting is finished,” he said. “If it’s not planted by now, they’ve switched to beans. And beans are about 98 percent completed – with most farmers finishing up within the past 10 days.”
Now, the main concerns center around crops that may have to be replanted because of standing water.
“If water comes up and goes down in a hurry, we may have a chance,” he said.
One of the oddities of the late planting season is that farmers who just completed the planting process will soon be in other fields to harvest their winter wheat crop.
“June 20 is about average for wheat harvest,” Marshel said. “The warmer temperatures we had earlier this month have sped up the maturing process for wheat, and more hot weather is predicted for next week.”
Many of those wheat fields will have double-crop soybeans planted soon after the wheat is harvested.
Marshal also said that he’s heard some reports of army worms and fungus, so many farmers have been spraying to combat those problems.
“It’s definitely been one of those years,” he said.