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Field activity at a standstill in much ofIndiana

Telephone calls to County Extension Offices around the state on Tuesday, May 5, didn’t find any field activity going on and Extension Educators toldBrownfield that there probably won’t be any field work until at least the end of the week in most areas.

In Posey County, far Southwest Indiana, Extension Educator Jon Neufelder says they were just getting back in the field when rains hit again, at best he says, maybe 10percent of the crop is planted. But in addition to planting delays, Neufelder says they’re also watching the wheat crop.

“We’re getting some heading so we’re expecting flowering to come any time now,” said Neufelder. “It’s kind of critical point right now,we’re hoping this rain will move on out and dry us up a little bit.”

Ken Salkeld in the Jennings County Extension office says maybe 5 percent of the corn has been planted there.

“On the high ground we’ve got some corn being planted, butwe’ve had so much rain in the past couple three weeks that it’s almost impossible to get in the fields,” Salkeld said.

Just south and east of Indianapolis, very little planting has been done in Shelby County and Extension Educator Scott Gabbard doesn’t expect much to bedone this week.

“Ideally some of the high ground, the better drained fields could be started on at least, possibly the end of this week, but for the most part it’s going to be the early part of next week,” said Gabbard.

The old saying,”if you’ve got an itch, scratch it,” may be what’s happening in White County Indiana, one of the top corn producing counties in the state, Extension Educator Greg Bossaer tells Brownfield some growers are trying to find a field to plant.

“A little scratchinggoing on, to open the soil up, a little anhydrous, quite a bit of spraying yesterday (Monday) and again today (Tuesday), good spraying conditions, but we’ve not had great drying conditions,” Bossaer said.