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Midwest farmer not panicked on late planting

A Midwestern farmer being kept from planting because of constant rains isn’t quite ready to hit the panic button.

“If we get held out another week, we’re going to be getting pretty nervous,” said Missouri Soybean Association President Matt Wright.

Wright said he’s only had about a day and a half dry enough to plant. And he tells Brownfield it would only take two rainless days to get back in the field…

“But it looks like this week is not looking so great on rain forecasts,” he said.

The northeastern Missouri farmer says the later it gets, the more wetness he’ll plant through.

“We get to where we make decisions on a certain percentage of the field,” Wright said. “And so, the later it gets in the spring, the more we want to push the window on how well the ground is ready.”

Wright said he’ll start to worry about yield loss from late planting after the second week of May for corn and at the end of May for soybeans.