Hoosier Ag Today Chief Meteorologist Ryan Martin shared his thoughts Tuesday morning from the Fort Wayne Farm Show on his weather predictions for 2024. For spring planting, Martin’s models tell him to expect a cool, but dry April and then a warm and wet May.
“So, what I talked about here at the farm show was encouraging anybody that saw a window in April to get in the field, even with a little bit cooler temperatures, probably take that and rely on your seed treatments and things like that, because there could be a little bit more wet weather in May. Now that’s good for anything planted. It should get it out of the ground and go on its way and the rest of the spring planting season is going to be trying to come back from that May high in moisture.”
In 2023, the lack of moisture early kept us disease free in the fields until it was too late for tar spot in corn or white mold in soybeans to really have much of a yield impact. But in ’24, “I think fungicide needs to be high on your list of things to consider as you’re talking about going through the planting process and with your agronomic advisor for sure,” says Martin. “Because I’m looking for precipitation to stay above normal in June, just slightly above, so near normal in July, but then we have the potential for a wet August before we dry down a little bit in September.”
Martin expects above normal temperatures from May through August before dropping off in September. There is one wild card that could throw things off in ’24 much like it did in ’23.
“Wildfire smoke. We’ve never had it here in the Corn Belt to the level that we saw last year coming out of Canada. If Canada can figure out how to put a little bit of water on a fire and put it out sooner, that’s tongue in cheek, but if we get away with less smoke, we probably don’t have much trouble drying down once we get into the fall harvest. But if we see a repeat or some kind of smoke scenario anywhere, even in the western United States that comes in here on west winds, that’s going to be the wildcard that we need to keep an eye on.”
Hear more from Martin in the full HAT interview below.
