Long winter could delay planting
MILWAUKEE (AP) – State farmers are usually close to planting some oats, small grains and alfalfa in early April. But this year, winter may delay the process.
"The temperatures aren’t warming up like we are used to,“ said Keith Ripp, a farmer near Lodi and president of the Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board.
Farmers normally start planting corn in late April. Last year, they harvested about 4 million acres of the corn in Wisconsin – the most acreage in years and 350,000 acres more than a year earlier. Nick Schneider, a University of Wisconsin Extension agent in Winnebago County, said farmers won’t risk planting corn until the soil warms up.
"It takes sufficient soil temperatures for the seeds to germinate," Schneider said. "If we get a lot of sunny days and temperatures turn around, that will speed things along."
Dane County, which has some of the state’s most productive farm soil, received about 100 inches of snow this winter. Snow could delay field work, but the melt will replenish underground water supplies needed by thirsty crops.
Overall, U.S. corn farmers are planting much earlier in the year than they did 30 years ago, according to a recent University of Wisconsin-Madison study published in Agronomy Journal.
Mar 29, 2008 at 11:01 p.m.
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Global warming...just ask Gore
Mar 29, 2008 at 7:06 p.m.
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New Ice Age anyone?
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