As we head into spring, farmers from across the country are all experiencing various weather conditions, from snow to rain to drought. And while they might not be able to control the weather, they do prepare for it.
We spoke with numerous farmers across various regions of the country about current weather conditions and how they are combating any challenges they may be experiencing.
NORTHWEST KANSAS:
Michael Sieck is a wheat farmer in Goodland, Kansas, where the weather has been a little dry since about August.
“The weather in Northwest Kansas has been mostly mild and dry,” Michael said. “We’ve had a few weather events and cold temps, but precipitation has totaled less than 4 inches in the past six months and not many events over half an inch since August 2019.”
After a dry winter, Michael is looking forward to seeing how his spring wheat performs in the upcoming months.
“Winter wheat emergence was spotty and some didn’t emerge until this spring,” Michael said. “However, spring wheat planting went well and is now also emerging. We’re hoping the recent rains will make this come up well.”
OKLAHOMA:
As we head over into northern Oklahoma, it seems farmers are experiencing pretty great weather conditions after a cold fall.
Jay Leeper of Alva, Oklahoma, tells us that in his area, things could not be going better.
“We’ve really had no issues here,” Jay said. “We got off to a slow start due to a cold fall, but now everything looks about as good as can be at the moment.”
TEXAS:
Down in Texas, Chris Lopez’s operation has seen a lot of rain which has raised some concerns.
“After we put out fertilizer, all of this rain has really helped perk up the wheat, it looks great!” Chris said. “However, our big concern now is spraying for rust after getting so much unusually wet weather for our area of Crowell.”
For now, Chris is scouting his fields and paying close attention.
“We're keeping an eye on our fields every few days to look for any other issues that could occur.”
NEBRASKA PANHANDLE:
Tyson Narjes farms in the southern Nebraska Panhandle where it had been an extremely dry winter — until March came around.
“Most of the winter wheat has broken the ‘first’ dormancy to be blanketed with two really heavy, wet snows in the past 10 days,” Tyson said. “Both have been very beneficial and very welcome to the area.”
Snow this time of year in the area is common and usually can happen all the way through April. But what is uncommon is what Tyson did on his operation for the first time in 40 years.
“All the wheat looks to be in awesome shape and has a tremendous start to the spring of 2020,” Tyson said. “On our farm, we tried something that hasn't been done in 40 years by putting in a couple hundred acres of WB9719 spring wheat. It was seeded March 6.”
“I checked just a few days ago and it's all sprouted but sitting idle due to the colder temps. It's an experiment for us and we are hopeful for successful results,” Tyson said.
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