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Arkansas farmer says planting season has been a challenge

A farmer from northeast Arkansas says this is one of the most frustrating planting seasons he’s ever experienced. Derek Haigwood of Newport says, “This is my 20th crop, and I have never prevented planted this many acres.”

He says he’s taking Prevent Plant on 600 of the 3,400 acres he farms.  “We went ahead and took prevent plant on quite a bit of rice, quite a bit of cotton, and even some corn,” he says.  “We gave up on the corn when it turned May.”

Haigwood tells Brownfield that planting crops in June is asking for trouble for farmers in his part of the country. “You’re worried about those hurricanes, and you’re also worried if we’re not finished before November,” he says. “In this area, November usually starts in the rainy season. When you’re cutting soybeans or whatever you’re doing, your cost per acre is going to go up.”

Haigwood was in the tractor cab on Monday, mowing ditches, because it’s still too wet to get a sprayer in the field. “What we can use airplanes on, we use them,” he says.  “What we can use drones on, we’ve used our drones, but we’re just behind. I need ground rigs in the field putting out fertilizer and doing things like that.”

He says his farm received significant rainfall on 21 of May’s 31 days. 

Ninety-three percent of the state’s cotton crop has been planted, 84 percent has emerged.  The crop is rated 18 percent excellent and 51 percent good.

Corn is rated 19 percent excellent and 49 percent good.  Four percent of the crop is in the dough stage, and 25 percent is silking.

Rice is rated 17 percent excellent and 51 percent good.  Ninety-five percent of the crop has emerged.

Soybeans are rated 14 percent excellent and 46 percent good.  Eighty-one percent of the crop has emerged, and 30 percent of the crop is blooming.

Nineteen percent of the wheat crop has been harvested. 

Hay is rated 8 percent excellent and 52 percent good, with the first cutting 44 percent complete.

AUDIO: Derek Haigwood, Newport, Arkansas farmer