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Wisconsin soil moisture levels vary as some planters get rolling

Some Wisconsin farmers are glad to get a break from rain long enough to plant, while others are hoping for a long, slow soaking rain after planting wraps up.

Cal Dalton raises about 13-hundred acres of hay, wheat, oats, corn, and soybeans plus beef cattle near Endeavor in south-central Wisconsin, and says the planter is still in the shed. “We hope to get the planter going by tomorrow, if we can.”

Dalton says rain has slowed him down. “It’s getting close. There’s spots that have water standing in them yet. Last week, I think we got about three and a half inches of rain here.”

Andy Bensend raises 18-hundred acres of corn, 15-hundred acres of soybeans, and 500 acres of wheat near Dallas in northwestern Wisconsin.  He tells Brownfield there is enough topsoil moisture for germination, but he’s very concerned about the lack of subsoil moisture. “When you go from me to the west, all the way to the west as far as you want to go, they don’t have enough water. Minnesota and North Dakota, they’re all fussing. The crop went in record fast and they’re dry and the big rain that we were supposed to have didn’t amount to much.”

Bensend says soil temperatures finally exceeded 50 degrees over the weekend, so they’re rolling. “We’re terminating the rye covers. The rye covers are greened up pretty good. We got the fertilizer on the wheat. We’re ready to really get after it this week, here, if we can get everything to hold together.”

Bensend says he planted a couple hundred acres of soybeans last week to see if University of Wisconsin recommendations to plant soybeans before corn works well for him.

Dalton says when conditions are right, he’ll be able to wrap up planting in about six days.