There’s a dry forecast ahead of us, but significant rains fell across Indiana over the weekend that will keep the planting pause button pressed. Brian Early, Pioneer field agronomist in north central Indiana, says his area received as much as 2 to 2.5 inches.
“We got a lot more than what many of us probably wanted. You know, we’ve been on the short side of moisture, but we’ve been picking along, and everything was planting good, and we were making great progress. This will definitely bring a halt to all the planting this week… I don’t know if the cold will do a lot of damage, but surface crusting is what I’d be leery of later in the week when it starts to get warm and sunny, so that will be something to watch out for.”
Early believes Thursday or Friday would be the earliest farmers could get back in the field.
In addition to problems stemming from the weekend’s rains, Early is also concerned this season about potential damage from black cutworm and armyworm.
“I trap for Purdue; they do a weekly trap, and everybody reports around the state their cutworm captures. My trap, right in the middle of the northern part of the state, has been the highest ever both last week and it looks like this week. We catch the moths and that gives us a good idea of egg laying. So, right now it looks like with all of the weedy fields we’ve got, which they’re attracted to, we could have the potential for pretty heavy cutting.
You can hear more from Pioneer agronomist Brian Early by clicking the play button on the audio player above.