Snow in the West and Indiana Rains Cause More Delays

More Indiana delays

May is here and many farmers are still watching and waiting for a planting window. Some of them west of Indiana got quite a shock when snow fell in their area and one of the areas affected is Des Moines, Iowa. HAT spoke with grain marketer Mike Silver of Kokomo Grain at noon Thursday right after he hung up from a conference call to Des Moines.

“What I’m about to tell you is the truth. They have 6 inches of snow on the ground, snowing hard and 31 degrees, and that’s less than a 6 hour drive west of here. I’ve done that many, many times. Not that far away.”

Silver says most Indiana farmers are waiting for their window but there are some signs of life in the fields.

“Around our Edinburg elevator location we do have some planting activity, and up in the lighter soils in Pulaski County around Winamac there is some corn planting activity. On the heavier soils around here in Kokomo and between Lafayette where I live, the only activity I saw Wednesday afternoon was one field sprayer applying some pre-emergent herbicide. That is the only field operation that I’ve witnessed, so we need a couple more days of drying here.”

Southeast Indiana Syngenta sales representative Larry Huffmeyer covers a varied geography so there is a variation of field activity happening there.
“Actually there are a few of the sandy areas that were planted 2 or 3 weeks ago. They were just real small portions and seem to be progressing and doing ok. There’s some being done now in the dryer areas and in the real wet soils some guys are reserved and waiting to see what this next storm does. If we get anything like they got in the west it will be plenty.”

That snow storm could drop over a foot total in parts of the Corn Belt before snow ends sometime Saturday. Minnesota is already reporting 14 inches. Rainfall in Indiana by the end of the weekend could range from a half to two inches.

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