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Crop conditions, feed inventory mixed in Wisconsin

The crops in Wisconsin range from good to struggling, depending on the crop and the location. 

Raymond Dietrich and his family operate a dairy farm west of Green Bay, where they’ve had a lot of rain this year and couldn’t plant silage corn until between the 15^th and 20^th of June. “We’re right now looking to try and see if we can source some more corn because we figure we’re probably going to get maybe half a crop at best as far as yield per acre.”

Dietrich says he was able to plant a shorter-season variety, and he’s hoping it gets ripe in time.  He says he’s doing some rotational grazing, but it’s not going well. “We have cattle out on pasture for heifers and beef cows that we graze. They’re just simply destroying the field.”

Brody Stapel runs a dairy and beef operation near Cedar Grove, not far off Lake Michigan north of Milwaukee. “We’re not growing a lot of feed for some reason at this point. We were wet from May 20 to July 10 and it really took a number. We’ve got some pretty good looking soybeans for some reason, but our corn is, our silage corn especially, isn’t all that special.”

Stapel says he was able to plant on time, but the constant rains and wet ground stunted corn growth.

So far, Stapel and Dietrich say they haven’t seen much disease pressure.  Both are relying on some silage carry-over and are not sure what they will end up with for feed when harvest is over.