Farmers See Another Great Week in the Fields, But Dry Weather Causing Some Stress on Crops
Tuesday, August 25th, 2020 -- 9:03 AM
(Wisconsin Ag Connection) -Wisconsin had 6.6 days suitable for fieldwork during the past week, allowing farmers to begin chopping corn silage and harvest other crops like snap beans and sweet corn.But the weekly crop/progress reports also notes that the dry weather is causing stress to crop as they ripen. The Wisconsin Ag Statistics Service adds that manure applications and cover crop plantings were going into cleared fields last week. Topsoil moisture levels were rated 15 percent very short, 28 percent short, 55 percent adequate and two percent surplus. As of Sunday, 80 percent of the corn was in the dough stage, more than three weeks ahead of last year and 10 days better than the five year average. Twenty-four percent of the crop was dented, which is twelve days ahead of this time in 2019 and two days ahead of normal.
Soybeans setting pods was 93 percent. That was over four weeks ahead of last year and eight days ahead of average. Seven percent of the beans were coloring, which is also further along than normal. The oat harvest is now 87 percent complete and winter wheat growers have all but two percent of their crop off the fields. Third cutting of alfalfa was reported as 87 percent complete, 15 days ahead of last year and six days ahead of the five-year average. Eight percent of the fourth crop has also been harvested.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.