As I took a look out this morning at the sun shining on the fields I remembered that I took a look at the calendar yesterday to see what was going on and came to the realization that we are just about 4-5 weeks away from the time we will be putting our first corn in the ground. Realize, that we still have snow on the ground and have quite a little fieldwork (discing, shredding, field cultivating) to do before the planter turns a wheel.
This is the way it works most years though. Late March storms and early to mid April planting. It is amazing how quickly the season changes to allow us to put our crops in the ground. As I write this, it is 23 degrees outside. To plant corn and have good emergence of the crop, we would like the ground temp to be near 50 degrees with warmer weather in the forecast. For soybeans we always used to say 60 degrees, but have been pushing that a little lower as we have found early planted soybeans(20th-28th of April) have had quite a yield bump on our farm.
Right now we are hauling 2010’s corn out of the bins to the local feedlot and preparing some equipment for the spring rush. We have a new planter we must plumb for liquid fertilizer to get the crop off to a good start. Planting is the most important job we do all year. Without a good start to the crop you are behind from the start and will never achieve maximum yield. I personally cannot wait to get back in the tractor and away from the meetings, planning, book work etc. that take up my time in the winter months. I am blessed to be able to go to a job every day that I thoroughly enjoy.
Days of the Weeks 