Heavy Rainfall Brought Fieldwork to a Standstill in Wisconsin Last Week
Tuesday, October 8th, 2019 -- 7:41 AM
(Wisconsin Ag Connection) -Heavy rainfall throughout the Badger State kept fall fieldwork at a standstill last week.The Wisconsin Ag Statistics Service said in its weekly crop/weather summary on Monday that precipitation totals ranged between two- to seven inches, preventing farmers from chopping corn, spreading manure or tilling their grounds. Late planted corn and soybeans were still struggling to mature as plant moistures slowly began to drop. The topsoil moisture levels were 51 percent adequate and 49 percent surplus, with no areas short on moisture. As of Sunday, all but nine percent of the corn had reached the dough stage--which is a full month behind average. Seventy-six percent was dented and 30 percent was reported as mature. Some farmers in southern Wisconsin started combining their corn, which is over two weeks behind schedule. The corn silage harvest is also three weeks off pace at just 31 percent harvested.
Nearly all of the soybeans have set pods and leaves were coloring on 86 percent of the beans. Plants were dropping leaves on 60 percent of the crop, which is two weeks slower than usual. Very few growers have started harvesting their fields as of last weekend. About a third of the winter wheat was planted, 17 days behind last year and 12 days behind the five-year average. Oats were 91 percent harvested. The third cutting of alfalfa hay was 95 percent complete, with 62 percent of the fourth crop now mowed. And fall tillage was only reported as eight percent complete.
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