Missouri farmers are planting at a rapid pace. In west-central Missouri, most farmers are finished planting corn and now moving to soybeans. The planting pace is also catching the attention of the head of crops for USDA-NASS.
The latest USDA Crop Progress report shows as of Sunday, April 23, 58% of the corn was planted across the state, which is an astonishing 40 points ahead of the five-year average.
The wide window of dry weather allowed even more planting progress to take place, as farmer after farmer says it’s their fastest planting pace ever.
“This is one of the first right here,” says Dave Nail, a farmer in Ray County, Mo.
Record Planting Pace We caught up with Nail as he was planting some ground adjacent to the Missouri River. This is Nail’s 54th time planting his crops, and even for him, it’s a memorable one.
“I’ve never been done so quick,” says Nail. “We can plant 200 plus acres a day, so it doesn’t take long to get in and plant now, but even with that, it’s been unusual this year.”
Nail says they planted all of their corn crop in 10 days.
“About the time we were getting finished planting corn, we started soybeans,” says Nail. “And we already have more than 700 acres of beans planted. So, it's kind of unusual this year. The ground is working good. And we've just been able to get in there and get it done.”
Corn Weathered the Cold Just south of the Missouri River, Tim Mershon is nearing the finish line on corn planting.
“90% of our corn is done. It's went in beautiful this year. I don't remember a year that it's ever planted so well,” he says.
The only field he has to finish planting corn is located north of him, and it saw two inches of rain last week.
While the weather has been cooperative with planting, the area did see sub-freezing temperatures last week. However, as he starts to walk the rows and dig up plants, the cold-nipped corn is holding up surprising well.
“It's still alive and healthy,” says Mershon. “It just looks like hell.”
The damage is spotty, with leaves brown, but he says it really varies field by field on what was hit harder from the cold temperatures nearly a week ago.
“60% of our corn is out of the ground, but at last weekend, there was about one-third of the corn out,” says Mershon.
Surprisingly Early Start to Soybean Planting The corn planting pace has been a bit of a surprise for many Missouri farmers, but what’s even more shocking is how early soybean planting is getting underway.
“I'm kind of old school, and I didn't always like to start until about May 10, but with the ground conditions and everything, as well as the technology on the beans now, it's just changed so much. It seems like when you can get them in early, the better off you are with yields.”
Nail isn’t alone. Mershon says he’s talked to farmer after farmer who is planting soybeans earlier than ever.
“We started planting soybeans yesterday. I used to always tell everybody, we had to wait till after Mother’s Day,” he says. “Just make sure that the ground was ready and everything else, but our ground's working so good, it's like, why not? Let's go ahead and start.”
Source: agweb.com
Photo Credit: istock-Kat72
Categories: Missouri, Crops, Soybeans