Wisconsin Farmers Are Fighting to Save the Season

Wisconsin farmers are working hard to rescue their crop from rain damage.
Wisconsin farmers are working hard to rescue their crop from rain damage.

According to the USDA’s latest Wisconsin Crop Progress and Condition Report, the state of Wisconsin recently received heavy amounts of damaging rain, causing disruption to farmer’s planting and haying work.

Destruction and soil crusting throughout freshly-tilled fields have hindering crop development across the northern part of the state. However, despite complications with heavy rain, a few exceptional days with sunny weather allowed for fieldwork to continue. In fact, the extremely moist grounds have actually boosted farmers’ crop potential.

Dan Brick from Brickstead Dairy, who is now dealing with the aftermath of such excessive rain, said in a Fox 11 article, “We’re having a little bit of difficulty with the corn that was planted. The heavy rain that we did have left a lot of compaction, so we are going over it right now with a rotary hoe and rake up the topsoil to help the plant come out of the ground.” Brick says that he has over 80 percent of his corn crop planted.

As of June 8th, corn was 92 percent planted and 75 percent emerged, with 81 percent in good to excellent condition. Fox 11 reports that many farmers admit this being the most corn they have planted in a while. Soybeans were 82 percent planted and 57 percent emerged, with 81 percent in good to excellent condition. Oats were 95 percent planted and 86 percent emerged with 83 percent in good to excellent condition statewide. Four percent of the crop was heading, compared to 1 percent at this time last year.

Looking towards the upcoming months, farmers are racing to save the season and get their crop in on time before frost surfaces in October.