A
AALARD
Guest
Flooded Midwest fields bring questions
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., (UPI) -- Indiana farmers denied access to fields by excessive June rainfall that left corn, soybean and hay fields underwater haven't lost their crops, experts say.
Agriculture experts at Purdue University say there's still time for growers to work and harvest their fields if weather conditions improve and the soil dries out, a university release said Friday.
On the plus side, they say, the rain, heat and humidity has accelerated corn crop development although the rapid growth is making weed control more difficult and delaying nitrogen fertilizer applications.
Water-soaked soybean fields present growers with difficult decisions, a soybean specialist said, about whether to attempt to harvest or start with replanting.
"At this point it really doesn't make sense to replant in many situations," he said. "If producers look at their fields and they have 50,000 plants or so, they can still get around 85 percent of their yield potential. So why go to the trouble of ripping those out to replant for 70 percent?"
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., (UPI) -- Indiana farmers denied access to fields by excessive June rainfall that left corn, soybean and hay fields underwater haven't lost their crops, experts say.
Agriculture experts at Purdue University say there's still time for growers to work and harvest their fields if weather conditions improve and the soil dries out, a university release said Friday.
On the plus side, they say, the rain, heat and humidity has accelerated corn crop development although the rapid growth is making weed control more difficult and delaying nitrogen fertilizer applications.
Water-soaked soybean fields present growers with difficult decisions, a soybean specialist said, about whether to attempt to harvest or start with replanting.
"At this point it really doesn't make sense to replant in many situations," he said. "If producers look at their fields and they have 50,000 plants or so, they can still get around 85 percent of their yield potential. So why go to the trouble of ripping those out to replant for 70 percent?"
