Planting season behind last year

By the calendar, planting corn is behind schedule compared to last year in Jefferson County and southeast Iowa, but it?s not time to switch seed yet, said Iowa State University Extension field agronomist Mark Carlton.

?Compared to last year, planting is late,? he said. ?But 2012 was an exceptional year, and corn was planted early.

?We still have a couple more weeks to get the 110-to-114?days maturation seed in the ground.?

Carlton said soil temperatures need to be 50 degrees or warmer for corn to germinate.

?Before the last ?snow storm? [the first week in May], we had a couple of periods when the soil here reached 63 degrees and probably some corn was planted,? said Carlton. ?But then the soil temperatures dropped into the 40s, which can chill the seed and cause physiological disorders in the plant.?

Southeast Iowa typically is planted with 110-days-to-114 days maturation corn seed, because the region has a longer growing period.

If planting conditions don?t improve by May 20 or so, farmers could swap seed on hand with a shorter growing season seed, a 90-day maturation corn hybrid.

That has not happened yet, according to sales at Fairfield?s Reiff Grain and Feed. No one has inquired about shorter maturation corn seed.

Carlton said swapping seed doesn?t necessarily cost more but it can be inconvenient.

?Seed dealers might not be as well stocked, not having anticipated needing too much 90-day maturation seed, so the selection may be limited,? said Carlson.

Soil temperatures are once again warm enough for corn planting, but wetness is keeping farm equipment out of the fields right now.

?We?re telling farmers, be patient,? said Carlson. ?Running a planter through the field that?s wet, the seed burrow can get side smeared or what we call sidewall compaction. If that happens, the burrow sets up like concrete, and the seed won?t grow. Sidewall compaction won?t happen if the field is dry.?

Soybeans are not a concern because there?s less yield advantage to early planting of soybeans.

?Some work in the fields got done at the end of April, but we?ve plenty of time,? said Carlson.

Late planting is not unique to southeast Iowa.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says just 12 percent of the nation?s cornfields have been planted. That?s about a quarter of what would was planted by this date throughout the previous five years, and it marks the slowest start in decades in some states.

The numbers have been even worse in the biggest corn-producing state, Iowa, where only 8 percent of the corn crop is in the ground, down from 62 percent the same time last year. The USDA says it?s the slowest planting pace since 1995 in Iowa, which was socked by a snowstorm last week.

The USDA recently estimated that U.S. farmers would plant 97 million acres of corn this year, which would be 100,000 more acres than last year, and that this year?s crop could produce a record harvest if yields are close to the trend line or above. But that?s if farmers can just get the crop planted: Mirroring Iowa?s issues, just 14 percent of Nebraska?s corn has been sown, 7 percent of Illinois? and 22 percent of Missouri?s.

Given that early May typically is ideal for planting corn, farmers in water-logged areas may have to wait a week or more for their fields to dry enough to be planted. There?s incentive to make it happen: Farmers broadly already have fertilized the fields, making it difficult to let that cost go for naught.

If the planting gets delayed into June, growers could turn to the shorter-season corn varieties, switch some of the acreage to soybeans or declare the land unplantable and collect the crop insurance for that lost opportunity, said Christopher Hurt, a Purdue University agricultural economist.

?This is just something they now are thinking about ? what are my alternatives?? Hurt said.

He added the recent rainfall would help the Corn Belt better withstand another drought, if one occurs this summer, by restoring its subsoil moisture.

It?s a stark juxtaposition from a year ago, when farmers jumped on an early spring and by this time had 69 percent of the corn planted, weeks ahead of schedule. Then by June, the drought began what became a summer-long intensification, although better crop technology still helped U.S. farmers reap one of their biggest corn crops ever.

?We keep saying, ?Don?t panic,?? Hurt added. ?But how many more weeks can we go and not panic? Not many.?

Adding to the uncertainty are commodities markets, which in recent months have shown volatility.

Corn prices dropped about 80 cents in early April but jumped 40 cents early last week, with planting delays accounting for at least some of those swings, said Chad Hart, an Iowa State University agricultural economist. The price of corn remains healthy and allows for profit, he said.

?The market is ready to make a run, but it doesn?t know which direction to go yet,? Hart said in a news release. ?There?s some cause for optimism in the middle of all this volatility in the market.?

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.