Rio Creek Feed Mill agronomist Adam Barta encourages you to be patient and stay consistent with your plans when planting crops in your fields. According to Wisconsin’s United States Department of Agriculture Crop Progress and Condition Report, farmers across the state had about 3.2 suitable days for fieldwork last week, down a day from the week before. The planting of corn (22 percent complete), soybeans (22 percent complete), and oats (54 percent complete) is still about a week ahead of last year’s pace and one to five days ahead of the average. The forecast may force that gap to shrink with at least a 50 percent chance of rain for Sunday, Thursday, Friday, and next Saturday. Barta says it will depend on the field on whether or not farmers will be able to get out to plant this year’s crops successfully.

Barta adds that farmers should not have to think about changing strategies until the calendar turns to June. At that point, he says farmers may have to change seeds or deal with a higher moisture content because of the later planting. According to the report, the winter wheat condition was rated 86 percent good to excellent, and the first all hay condition of the year was rated 74 good to excellent statewide.