Planting Updates from Iowa Corn Leaders – Tuesday, May 07, 2013

The sun is shining and temperatures are in the 70s so fieldwork is expected to resume today in northwest Iowa according to Bruce Rohwer, a farmer from Paullina and president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association.

“This is the first week since April 11 that we do not have snow in the forecast,” Rohwer says.  “I expect farmers to get in the fields today but we have a 70 percent chance of rain late tonight and tomorrow. So we could have another interruption coming.”

“We, as farmers, do not want to be in the fields too early and create problems that we have to deal with all season but it might not be possible to wait for ideal conditions this year,” Rohwer says. “As my mother said, ‘patience is a virtue,’ so I guess we’re seeing how patient we can be.”


Don Hunerdosse of Milo is still waiting to get into the fields in south central Iowa.  He received two inches of rain last week followed by 10 inches of snow. In all, he estimates about five inches of moisture added to the fields. For now, they are waiting for warm, dry weather.

“We weren’t too aggressive in planting before the rain and snow arrived last week,” he says. “However, other area farmers did plant and I can see some sprouts coming up in nearby fields.”

“We were done with all of our corn and soybean planting by May 14 last year and we haven’t had a good start yet,” he adds. “The pastures are really growing. We just need more warm weather.”