Y101.3 FM Sioux City

Illinois farmers made some planting progress last week, but weather challenges remain. Shelby County farmer Matt Bennett says he’s not planted anything at this point. “I’ve heard of a few beans getting planted to the south, but mostly groundwork.”  He says, “Overall there’s really not been a whole lot in the way of planting, you know, just hit and miss. Maybe a guy or two here and there, but not much at all.” USDA’s weekly crop progress and condition report shows 3% of corn is planted, as is 4% of soybeans.  Both up slightly from last week. ...     

An Indiana farmer says the combination of wet weather and storm clean-up has delayed the start of planting. A tornado hit Southwest Indiana farmer Ben Kron’s family farm in early April. “We’ve been cleaning up for two weeks now,” he says.  “A lot of it was done with excavator and just loaded the tracks to haul it off.  But, we still probably have a couple weeks yet of just picking things up by hand and you know, getting rid of it. ...     

The Fertilizer Institute’s Certified Biostimulant program is elevating product standards for growers. President and CEO Corey Rosenbusch tells Brownfield crop nutrients including biologicals are regulated at the state level and compliance can be difficult. “We took the standard that the industry had been working on that looked at efficacy testing methods, safety, and composition, and we built a certification so that as a grower begins to look at products and understand how they work, they know that they can have confidence that there was a certain rigor that existed,” he says. ...     

Minnesota farmers were able to make some headway on spring fieldwork last week. USDA’s latest crop update shows corn planting is three percent complete and soybeans are one percent planted. For small grains, oat planting reached 17 percent, barley three percent, and spring wheat is also three percent planted. Sugarbeet planting is underway, and tillage and manure applications continue. ...