BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) – A wet spring and soggy conditions are contributing to a tardy start for planting season in Brown County.
Puddles and mud have been an all too common sight for local producers.
“You get a couple days of sun and you get a couple of days of rain, a couple days of sun and a couple days of rain,” explains Dan Natzke of Wayside Dairy. “It’s extremely hard to get crops in.”
Natzke runs the 3,100-acre Wayside Dairy, which is located in southern Brown County.
He says their planting season is about three weeks behind.
“We’ve had a lot of wet springs, but this is the wettest that we’ve done,” according to Natzke. “Last year, we were all done planting by this time, everything.”
Others agree that it’s been a struggle thus far.
“This spring has probably been one of the more challenging here,” says Brent Petersen, Brown County Land and Water Conservation Department Agronomist.
According to him, farmers may have to soon consider planting corn, which matures during shorter growing seasons.
“Because we’ve lost some growing-degrees here already, which is pretty important to finishing here in the end,” he explains.
Additionally, he says the poor planting weather has killed about half of the county’s alfalfa crop, which is used to make hay.
“I think some guys are trying to get that alfalfa cut, and then maybe put some corn into those acres,” says Petersen. “Something like that, kind of help with the forage situation.”
According to Natzke, about a third of his crops are in the ground.
On Monday, crews harvested triticale, which is a cover crop planted over the winter, in hopes that the grass will help feed the 1,900 cows.
“We’re going to plant up to the end if we can, drop-dead date, I suppose, July,” he says. “But we’re going to get something in the ground, because we need to feed our cows.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s weekly crop report, which was released Monday, stated that planting for corn, soybeans, and oats are all far behind last year.
30-percent less corn is in the ground compared to this same time in 2018, while soybeans are 43-percent behind schedule.
Oats, which have fared slightly better, have been planted 14-percent less than they did last year.
