Still Planting in Southwest Indiana as Farm Tour Arrives

Whitsitt farm tour

The Purdue Farm Management Tour in the middle of June every year doesn’t tend to interrupt planting activities. But it’s different this year since the tour is in the rolling fields of southwest Indiana where rains have come repeatedly throughout the spring, leaving many farmers still in the planting stages of their year. When Dubois County farmer Dennis Whitsitt first agreed to the tour, it was safe to assume he would be finished planting except for double crop soybeans.

“We thought we’d be right in between first planting corn and soybeans and our wheat and double crop, so it sounded like a good idea. Of course the best of plans always go awry. We may get part of our double crop done before our early beans,” he added.

Whitsitt told HAT the early beans that are planted and up are starting to come around, thanks to consecutive days of warm sunny weather to start the week. This spring that is unusual.

“Last week they said 8 of 10 days we had rain, so obviously that was very detrimental to any type of field work. We’re way behind on hay harvest. We had a lot of corn to replant or it didn’t get planted at all, and soybeans usually wait until we get the corn out of the way, so they’re still waiting.”

On the Whitsitt farm and all the others in the area the progress of the corn crop is quite varied.

“The last week since we’ve gotten warmer temperatures, and now with this sunshine, what has been planted and is up really looks excellent. Of course what you don’t see is what isn’t there. It never did get planted, so that’s the real problem.”

Whitsitt says it was actually fairly dry in the early spring but the rainy weather started about the time he wanted to head to the fields. With a little cooperation each day the rest of the week, that first round of soybeans might get completed.