POSTAL CUSTOMER
Volume V, Issue 5
PRSRT STD U.S. Postage Paid Permit #36 OMAHA, NE
May 2011
After cool, rainy April, farmers busy in the fields How will delays affect decisions?
by Emma Struve Planting progress finally saw an up tic this past week as farmers experienced a break in the rain. As of the time that Iowa State University Extension Field Agronomists provided updates on spring fieldwork at the end of last week, percentage of corn planted was still in the single digits. Providing their observations this week are the following field agronomists: • Paul Kassel - Counties served include Dickinson, Emmett, Clay, Palo Alto, Kossuth, Winnebago. Hancock, Buena Vista, and Pocahontas in north central Iowa • Joel DeJong - Counties served include Lyon, Osceola, Sioux, O'Brien, Plymouth, Cherokee, Woodbury, Ida, Monona, and Harrison in northwest Iowa • Mark Licht - Counties served include Sac, Calhoun, Crawford, Carroll, Greene, Boone,
May is Beef Month in Iowa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 4
A farmer plants corn on a field near Westside. His Shelby, Audubon, Guthrie, Dallas, and Polk in tractor and 16-row planter is shown traveling just west central Iowa • John Holmes - Counties Served include over the crest of a hill. Photo by Gordon Wolf Worth, Mitchell, Cerro Gordo, Floyd, Humboldt, Wright, Franklin, Butler, Webster, Hamilton, Hardin, Grundy, and Story in central south, a higher percentage has been applied. Iowa Little field work here other than some manure • Aaron Saeugling - Counties served include applied this spring so far. I have heard of an Pottawattamie, Cass, Adair, Madison, Mills, occasional field planted but very few so far. Montgomery, Adams, Union, Fremont, Page, More as you get to the Council Bluffs area. Taylor, and Ringgold in southwest Iowa Licht: Planting has occurred in west central To contact to the field specialist in your area and central Iowa, although not to the extent of see http://www.extension.iastate.edu/ag/fscrops last year. By this time last year more than 60 /NewFiles/fscrops.html. percent of the corn was planted; this year there is less than five percent planted - probably How is pre-planting fieldwork and closer to two or three percent. Corn that was planting progressing in your area? planted is likely to have trouble with germiKassel: Really very little corn planted. There nation, radicle, and coleoptile growth resulting was some corn planted on Monday April 25. I in uneven emergence and poor emergence have not heard of corn planted April 11, 12, or rates. Growers should not go out and automat13. ically replant, but rather get the rest of the DeJong: Some fertilizer has been applied in the northwest corner - but not all. As we go Continued on Page 12
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Going Green . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 17
The Farmer’s Wife . . . . . . . . . . .Page 5 Futures Market Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 13 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 24-27