Fieldwork Delays Inevitable

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Published on March 18 2019 3:14 pm
Last Updated on March 18 2019 3:15 pm

BY DANIEL GRANT, FARMWEEKNOW.COM

Spring officially begins March 20, but it appears farmers are stuck with the remnants of winter for some time.

Above-normal winter precipitation and an active weather pattern so far this month led to widespread flooding issues across the Midwest that likely won’t ease any time soon.

Statewide, precipitation for the climatological winter (December through February) averaged 9.67 inches, 2.85 inches above normal, according to the Illinois State Water Survey.

Rainfall last week ranged from 1 to 3 inches across the state as of Thursday as another system moved through the Midwest, which also generated widespread strong winds and blizzard conditions to the west and north of Illinois.

In addition to snow melt, much of the state has been grappling with rain, which ranged from 1 to 3 inches last week. (Illinois Farm Bureau file photo)
In addition to snow melt, much of the state has been grappling with rain, which ranged from 1 to 3 inches last week. (Illinois Farm Bureau file photo)

“It’s been a long winter. Our rainy weather started the third week of September (and carried) through December,” said Dan Ziller, president of the McHenry County Farm Bureau. “Then the snow came. It was relentless.

“I still have beans in the field,” he noted. “I’m hoping to get drier weather to finally get those harvested.”

In fact, a number of farmers still have crops in the field from last year. Country Financial requested an extension for harvest with the Risk Management Agency, as Dec. 10 marked the end of the insurance period.

“We started with 51 counties in Illinois that still had standing crop after Dec. 10, and we’re down to probably around the mid-20s that still have standing crop,” Brad Clow, COUNTRY Financial crop operations manager told RFD Radio Network last week. 

The situation remains equally difficult for livestock farmers. Weather issues shortened the forage cropping season last year, and cold temperatures raised energy costs and feed prices.

Heavy snow also affected milk pickup services, which forced some dairy farmers to dump milk, according to Richard Beuth, president of the Winnebago-Boone Farm Bureau.

“We still have snow up here,” Beuth said last week. “We had contracts for corn for January and February, but we couldn’t get trucks in the driveway to get the corn out.”

Beuth and Ziller believe fieldwork activity might not start in their area until mid- to late-April at the earliest.

“We’re still trying to melt snow, and we’ve got a lot of frost in the ground,” Ziller said. “It will be weeks before we even think about trying anything.”

Fieldwork delays should start to catch the attention of traders, according to Randy Martinson, market analyst with Martinson Ag Risk Management.

“We’re going to have to wait quite a while to get into the fields. We’ll definitely have planting delays,” the analyst said. “It’s not showing up as a concern for the trade, yet. But as we get closer to late March, the market should start to react to that.

“We could see a switching of acres, with less spring wheat and corn.”

The Allendale Inc. Producer Acreage Survey last week estimated plantings this season could total 91.4 million acres of corn, 84.2 million acres of beans and 47.4 million acres of wheat. USDA releases its prospective plantings estimates March 29.