Despite an active weather pattern this year, USDA Meteorologist Brad Rippey says that the weather has been pretty kind to most growers this planting season.
“We’ve gotten through three drought years and a recovery year and here we are four years later— looking at, overall, pretty good conditions. But it’s also noteworthy that we haven’t had any major flooding going along with that, and also, the fact that producers are able to get back in the fields pretty quickly once those storms pass,” Rippey explains.
Some good news, according to Rippey the corn crop is coming up quickly and growing fast with three-quarters of it rating good to excellent in this week’s Crop Progress Report.
That is true for one Wisconsin farmer who says that he has never seen a year quite like this!
Doug Rebout who farms near Janesville shared with Brownfield Ag News that with nearly no snow over the winter, he was able to strip till in late February, early March.
Following three weeks of rain, they were ready to start planting in the middle of April and finished by the first week of May. With all of their recent rain, there is no doubt that the crop will be knee-high by the 4th of July this year.
