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Wisconsin farmers wait for wet fields to dry out

Several Wisconsin farmers say the ground is still too wet for fieldwork.

Steve Knoebel raises crops in the Helenville area between Madison and Milwaukee, and says wet weather has led to no fieldwork for him. “It’s going to be quite a while now. We’ve had over three inches in the last two weeks.”

Cal Dalton farms near Endeavor and says it’s been very wet, so there’s almost no tillage or planting in his area, but there is some limited manure application. “We’re spreading on hay ground that’s going to get torn up and some higher, sandy ground and stuff, and we don’t load the spreaders real heavy.”

Andy Bensend grows crops near Dallas in northwestern Wisconsin, and tells Brownfield it’s too wet to do much of anything. “On the medium to heavy soils here, we’re probably a week to ten days away from being able to do anything. Some well-drained soils might go quicker than that. The temperature really helps, but we can still find snow in the ditches here and there.”

USDA says Wisconsin had just over three full days of weather suitable for fieldwork, and soil moisture levels are keeping most machinery parked.  Forty-two percent of Wisconsin’s topsoil has surplus moisture, and 55% has adequate levels.

Wisconsin has four percent of its oats planted and only one percent of its corn planted.  USDA says almost no soybeans have been planted, and there is no current data for wheat.