Planting and Spraying 2018 Crop

Planting the 2018 crop was far better than the 2017 crop.  One thing about farming is that no two years are the same.  In 2017, it took six weeks to get the corn planted because of excessive rain.  In 2018, it took seven days!  No rain delays occurred while planting corn.  The starting date of April 23 was a little late because April of 2018 was the second coldest April on record.  It snowed just days prior to our starting to plant.  Once started, however, we had a very nice stretch of about 10 days without rain.

Corn is all up and looks good.  For the first time in memory, corn planting, bean planting and spraying all started on the same day.  Bean planting took an extra two weeks after corn was done because normal rainfall began to arrive during our second week of planting.  This meant that roughly half of each of the next three weeks the bean planter sat waiting for the ground to dry.  Not to complain though.  Normal rainfall at generally gentle rates is always a good thing.  The soybeans are in and mostly emerged as of May 20.

The first of two to three rounds of spraying is also complete.  Timely termination of cover crops is important to allow nearly emerged corn and beans to establish without having to compete with the rye for sunshine and water.  Windy days are a sprayer’s nemesis and spring is always windy by definition.  The job is done for now, and things look very good for mid May.  Spraying operations will continue through May, June and part of July.