Cold, wet weather causes concerns for farmers

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Unseasonably cold weather along with three rounds of heavy snow in northeast Iowa since the first day of spring are not only frustrating and burdensome for the people who live in the region, they could be a big problem for farmers.

“We need to get the snow melted off and the topsoil dried,” said ISU Extension Field Agronomist Terry Basol. “The weather has pushed off planting 7 to 14 days — we’re a week or two behind schedule.”

April 11 is the accepted date for farmers to start planting in order to get insurance for their crops.

“That’s Wednesday — I don’t see anyone being able to plant by Wednesday this week,” said Basol, who is based out of Nashua.

He said the average soil temperature in Floyd County and throughout this area is currently 32 degrees.

“That’s pretty chilly for April,” Basol said. “We want our soil temperature to be at least 50 degrees — preferably warmer than that — at a four-inch level. We also want to maintain that temperature for a few days after it gets planted. We want the soil to be solid and not too wet.”

The most recent crop report for the state of Iowa, released Monday by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, said another cold, wet week prevented fieldwork across most of the state, with less than one day suitable for fieldwork last week.

“The cool, wet weather has kept farmers out of the field and created challenges for cow/calf producers who are in the midst of calving,” said Mike Naig, Iowa deputy secretary of agriculture, in a press release Monday. “It looks like this weather pattern could stay in place and continue to prevent farmers from getting a start on spring fieldwork.”

The report said there were isolated instances of grain transport and fertilizer application.

“Topsoil moisture levels rated 2 percent very short, 7 percent short, 76 percent adequate and 15 percent surplus. Subsoil moisture levels rated 3 percent very short, 12 percent short, 77 percent adequate and 8 percent surplus.”

Despite the problems caused by the weather, Basol said there is no reason to panic.

“We’re still looking at 100 percent yield potential if they can get planted by May 1,” he said.

“The best-case scenario would be that this recent weather event would have been the last of our main precipitation events for the next few weeks. We’d like to see warmer temperatures — more normal temperatures for this time of year — to help dry out the top 4-6 inches of soil, so farmers can plant into a nice seed bed.”

Basol said that the worst-case scenario would be for the area to continue to get rain or snow, which will “prohibit planters from getting out there.” He added that even if the fields can be planted before May 1, rushing to get everything done in haste can cause other concerns.

“What’s happened is that we’re narrowing our time frame. It will kind of compact all the different things the farmers will have to do,” he said. “Once they get going, they will have to do everything in one flurry. That raises safety concerns.”

Basol said that any time you need to do a lot of things in a short period of time, it increases the likelihood of mistakes.

“Farmers are like the rest of us. They know it’s imperative to get things done in a time frame that optimizes the results,” he said. “I hope everyone does their due diligence. That 50-degree soil temperature is pretty important for planting. You don’t want to put the seed in the ground if it isn’t at least 50 degrees or warmer.”