Hoosier Ag Today, Indiana’s leading farm network, has launched a new program to help Indiana farmers do a better job of getting the 2017 crop planted. The exclusive Planting Forecast premieres on Friday, April 14, and will continue through the end of June. Sponsorship by Seed Consultants and Kokomo Grain have made this program possible. Weather is always important to a farmer, but twice a year it is VERY important: at planting and at harvest. “Knowing what weather conditions will be like days or even weeks in advance is vital information for today’s large and sophisticated operations. Local television forecasters or national weather consultants do not have the kind of data, experience, and agronomic knowledge to provide growers with the in-depth forecasts they need,” said HAT president Gary Truitt. That is why Hoosier Ag Today obtained the services of Ryan Martin, a Purdue-trained meteorologist with experience in farming and commodity markets, to produce customized farm forecasts just for the Hoosier State.
Using proprietary weather forecasting models, Martin has developed a planting outlook for the Spring of 2017. Martin will present recommendations for likely planting days in the coming week on the Friday Hoosier Ag Today farm news roundup program, aired by over 30 stations across the state.
This weather outlook will be combined with agronomic and economic resources from Purdue Extension to create a weekly on-line document that will be compelling reading for all growers. This will be e-mailed to thousands of growers every Saturday morning and will have a day-by-day forecast calendar for the week ahead, along with a long-range, planting forecast for the rest of the planting season. This material will also be available on the HAT website and mobile app with links to the document on twitter and other social media platforms. Farmers can sign up to receive this free, weekly, planting forecast below. [mc4wp_form id=”63862″]
“This year’s spring weather looks to be especially challenging for getting a crop in the ground,” said Truitt. “Not only are many fields too wet to work, high winds have limited spraying for burndown and pre-plant weed control programs.” The likelihood of a start and stop planting season was part of the motivation for HAT to launch this program. Giving growers a timely, day-by-day look at the weather will allow them to maximize the planting window.
This kind of program is being planned for the fall to help with harvest. Hoosier Ag Today indicates that, at this time, sponsorship slots are open for the harvest forecast program.