Spring planting?

JV · May 17, 2019, 11:59:02 AM

Anyone planting crops yet? It has been cold and wet here, now it is warm and wet. I heard that some guys were planting 10-15 miles north of me yesterday in sand/muck ground. Popup rains stopped that yesterday with more coming today. Oh well, won't be the first time we planted in June. :-\

GRANITEstateMP · May 17, 2019, 12:15:30 PM

No corn in the ground yet for my part of NH. It's sunny now, but of coarse we got our now daily 3hrs of on and off rain this am!

Chuck White · May 17, 2019, 06:50:02 PM

To my knowledge there is no field planting going on yet in this area!

My two Amish farmers are plowing fields now!

On a smaller scale I have a little garden patch off the end of my deck and still under the roof and it's all planted now.
I have 12 tomato and 12 pepper (bell & jalepeno), 7 straight-8 cucumbers, 2 rows of onion sets, 1 row of carrots and 1 row of radishes.

It gets a little crowded as they mature.

chevytaHOE5674 · May 17, 2019, 07:06:09 PM

Have some hay seed sitting in the bag waiting on the last of the frost to thaw, snow drifts to melt, and ground to dry and warm up.

btulloh · May 17, 2019, 08:33:40 PM

Drilling in some corn today. Should be finished tomorrow.

goose63 · May 17, 2019, 08:50:08 PM

Thy are going like mad round here tractors and planters all over the place

curdog · May 17, 2019, 08:53:59 PM

The farmers here have tomatoes in the fields and the corn is coming up as well. Hay is getting cut. Hopefully we'll keep getting some rain for the crops. We went from sloppy wet to kicking up dust while walking today...

low_48 · May 17, 2019, 09:07:52 PM

Heard an Iowa farmer talking on the radio. He had 5' of water in some fields yet from flooding. He's talking about finding work since he won't get a crop this year. Illinois has around 15% of the corn in the fields, and that doesn't cover all the planted acres that are under water. Expecting another 1"-1.5" in the next two days. I could have been a 4th generation farmer, but there were three reasons I couldn't wait to get off the family farm when I was 18. Scooping hog manure, walking bean fields to pull weeds, and having my entire livelihood based on the weather. I watched my Dad walk fields kicking dirt clods when we had drought. I watched him cry when we had to quarantine our farm and destroy all our hogs from disease. I also watched him cry when hail and high winds knocked down entire fields in the early fall after expecting that beautiful crop to set record harvest. It was something I wanted no part of!!!!!!! To add to all this misery this year, the Feds are making farmers welfare recipients, not businessmen. I feel so sorry for those that have chosen this life. Independence has very little to do with it right now!

Southside · May 17, 2019, 11:14:58 PM

Quote from: low_48 on May 17, 2019, 09:07:52 PMthe Feds are making farmers welfare recipients, not businessmen

Not all of us. Just like any other business if you are going to buck the tide you have to operate differently but we have not done anything with the USDA / FSA for well over a decade now and I would never go back. About twice a year they send me a letter in the mail demanding that I fill out their survey as it is "required by law" and they threaten to send a representative here if we don't comply to "compel compliance". Well, to quote Mr T, I pitty the fool should he or she ever show up.

Talk to the dairymen in New Zealand, the govt basically dropped them cold turkey back in the '90's I think it was, they were all scare it was the end, now they all agree - never again will they go back.

Get out of the cycle, yes it hurts at first and you will wonder if you are on the right path, but after a few years the answer is clear.

curdog · May 18, 2019, 09:03:20 AM

I went to the farmers market to grab a few things for the week and noticed the corn fields in the bottoms below the house had corn standing about a foot tall. The corner of those fields usually flood at some point during the summer, but most of it grows well. This time last year most of the tomatoes got flooded out right after they were put in the ground.

Magicman · May 18, 2019, 09:31:26 AM

The rice crops in parts of Louisiana and Texas may be non-existent this year. Not good because they are major producers of our supply!

JV · May 18, 2019, 02:11:05 PM

With soybeans prices being lower, one of my renters was hoping to plant a couple more fields of popcorn here. The popcorn company dictates the planting, so all we can do is hope the weather clears. That doesn't look too promising for the next week. One old farmer years ago said that years like last fall and this spring were to remind some younger guys that they couldn't farm the whole county on their own.

Chuck White · May 18, 2019, 02:11:31 PM

My neighbor lady is across the road with 5-6 kids planting stuff in their garden now.

I think the garden over there is just over two acres this year, last year was less than one!

Autocar · May 18, 2019, 05:26:16 PM

Nothing and I mean nothing has been planted anywhere in western Ohio we got another 4 1/2 inches the other night and there calling for storms Sunday evening. I talked to a fellow logger in southern Illinois on Friday and he told me maybe 1 percent of the corn is planted. Not sure how this will end up but not looking good at this time.

low_48 · May 18, 2019, 10:50:04 PM

Curious what crops you grow Southside?

Southside · May 19, 2019, 12:33:08 AM

Gave up on row cropping, soil health and weed pressure were too much to make it work without being an addict to the system. Planted everything to managed, irrigated, perinnial pasture and we have a grazing dairy. I do over plant with beans, peas, sunflowers, and cereal grains but those end up as forage as well.

Plankton · May 19, 2019, 01:15:36 PM

That's awesome. Some point in my life I'd like to slow down logging and settle down and start a grazing based dairy. I love milking cows and grazing/grass based makes so much sense. Not putting down conventional dairys at all. My next door neighbor has been transitioning to grass based/grazing on his 7th gen. Dairy farm and it has definitely upped his profit margin and made it sustainible.

On topic, havent seen any planting going on around here except for veggies. Been raining every day for a long time and doesnt look like its letting up. Still lakes in some corn fields.

A-z farmer · May 19, 2019, 08:39:48 PM

We just planted our first planting of sweet corn today 3 weeks late with all the rain this year .
We usually plant every week for 2 months with a total of 60 acres and our last planting by July 4.
The only bright side is the hay is growing but we usually start harvesting by May 20 and the rain will delay cutting.
Lots of acres of corn and beans still to be planted herein New York.
Zeke

btulloh · August 04, 2019, 08:39:06 PM

It's been a while. How'd everybody make out with the planting?

My beans are doing pretty well.

A-z farmer · August 06, 2019, 06:08:26 AM

We did not get any beans planted this year because of all the rain . But we were able to send the two pallets of seed back to the company .
The winter wheat is in the bin and we are just waiting for the sample results to be able to sell it to flour millers.Oats will be ready to harvest next week along with the spring barley for malting .The corn is growing with all the heat .
Zeke

JV · August 06, 2019, 09:42:36 AM

We got a break in the rain mid-June and the renters got all the beans planted. The popcorn company said it was too late and picked up all the seed. The beans look good but now we need some rain. There was a lot more no-till done around here this year because of the weather delay.