Post by 76chevy on Jun 7, 2011 12:24:45 GMT -5
www.indystar.com/article/20110607/NEWS/110607003/Ind-farmers-24-days-behind-last-year-s-corn-planting?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|IndyStar.com
Several days of hot, dry weather the past week helped Hoosier farmers racing the calendar to get this year’s corn crop planted.
However the planting is still about 24 days behind last year’s pace and at least 9 days behind an average year.
Some farmers have given up on corn for 2011, and they are accepting crop insurance payments assuming the clock has already run out on this spring’s planting season.
About 82 percent of this year’s corn crop was planted through last weekend, up from 59 percent a week earlier. That compares to 97 percent planted at this time last year, according to the Indiana Field Office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s statistics service at West Lafayette. The agency issues weekly updates during the planting season.
The late planting this spring, caused by rain and prolonged cold temperatures, is a difference of at least 500,000 to a million acres of Indiana crops not in the ground and growing, which means up to $1 billion in lost farm income, according to crop insurers.
The USDA statistics service said Hoosier farmers are taking advantage of the improving conditions and they can make up a lot of the lost ground with 10 days of dry weather.
Some farmers are switching to shorter season varieties of seed corn hoping that the crop can mature before the killing frost next fall, usually in October.
Soybeans can be planted later and still have time to mature, according to agriculture experts at the USDA.
The wet early spring has slowed planting of beans, too.
The latest crop report shows 49 percent of the beans have been planted, up from 25 percent that had been planted a week earlier. But the pace is far behind the 79 percent planted this time a year ago.
Call Star reporter Bruce C. Smith at (317) 444-6081.
Several days of hot, dry weather the past week helped Hoosier farmers racing the calendar to get this year’s corn crop planted.
However the planting is still about 24 days behind last year’s pace and at least 9 days behind an average year.
Some farmers have given up on corn for 2011, and they are accepting crop insurance payments assuming the clock has already run out on this spring’s planting season.
About 82 percent of this year’s corn crop was planted through last weekend, up from 59 percent a week earlier. That compares to 97 percent planted at this time last year, according to the Indiana Field Office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s statistics service at West Lafayette. The agency issues weekly updates during the planting season.
The late planting this spring, caused by rain and prolonged cold temperatures, is a difference of at least 500,000 to a million acres of Indiana crops not in the ground and growing, which means up to $1 billion in lost farm income, according to crop insurers.
The USDA statistics service said Hoosier farmers are taking advantage of the improving conditions and they can make up a lot of the lost ground with 10 days of dry weather.
Some farmers are switching to shorter season varieties of seed corn hoping that the crop can mature before the killing frost next fall, usually in October.
Soybeans can be planted later and still have time to mature, according to agriculture experts at the USDA.
The wet early spring has slowed planting of beans, too.
The latest crop report shows 49 percent of the beans have been planted, up from 25 percent that had been planted a week earlier. But the pace is far behind the 79 percent planted this time a year ago.
Call Star reporter Bruce C. Smith at (317) 444-6081.
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