Michigan
For the week ending May 23, the weather got dryer and helped farmers make progress on their crops.

Kirby Hostetler, a farmer from Athens in the southwest portion of the state, said that rain showers and cold weather had slowed crop progress the week before, but last week things were much better. Hostetler raises sheep as well as 100 acres each of alfalfa, soybeans and wheat. “As far as planting, everything is still ahead of schedule,” he said. “We’re making rapid progress because things have dried up here quite a bit. People are starting to cut some hay.”

The Michigan field office of the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) provides a less rosy picture of crop progress.

“Wet conditions slowed fieldwork across much of the state,” the report stated. “Corn planting was limited by wet soil across much of the state, but progress advanced where soils dried out. Several counties have had no fieldwork for a full month due to wet soil. Many fields with low spots still contain some standing water and some crops were under water.”

Other parts of the state were too dry. The report noted that fires in the northern Lower Peninsula broke out in Crawford and Kalkaska counties, burning more than 5,000 acres.

The report also said some soybeans were replanted after a frost kill. Oats and barley are doing well, and dry bean planting was underway and should accelerate. Wheat was progressing well in most places, except in some areas where it was flattened and yellowed because of too much rain. It was too wet in some areas to cut alfalfa, though it was tall. Sugarbeet stands were also doing well.

Freezes on May 9-10 damaged grapes and stonefruit in southwestern Michigan. Frost damaged all fruits in the west-central area.

“The asparagus crop pretty much recovered after the frost from a couple weeks ago,” said Bonita Hodge, a statistician at the Michigan NASS office.

By Kevin Walker
Michigan Correspondent

Indiana

Corn planting slowed in Indiana after heavy rains soaked parts of the state during the week of May 17, according to the latest report from the Indiana NASS office.

For the week ending May 23, 88 percent of the corn had been planted, up slightly from the previous week’s 86 percent. Despite the rain, corn planting was still running ahead of last year, when 51 percent of the corn had been planted by this time. The five-year average is 79 percent.

According to the NASS report, 79 percent of the corn had emerged, compared to 19 percent last year. The five-year average is 56 percent.

For soybeans, 50 percent had been planted, up from last week’s 46 percent. Last year, 22 percent of beans had been planted. The five-year average is 51 percent. Thirty-four percent of Indiana’s soybean crop had emerged, up significantly from the 3 percent that had emerged by the same time last year. The five-year average is 22 percent.

Farmers in DeKalb County, Ind., were waiting for their fields to dry out before deciding if replanting would be necessary, said Elysia Berry, the county’s extension educator for agriculture and natural resources. Several areas of the state had more than three inches of rain the week of May 17.

“How badly the corn is damaged depends on several factors, including how deep the water was and how long the plants were under water,” Berry said. “Plants that are 2-3 inches out of the ground already stand a better chance than smaller plants.
“Saturday (May 22) morning, a lot of ditches and creeks had gone over their banks and flooded some fields. But by (last) week, with the drier weather, a lot of those fields had been able to dry out, and farmers should be able to get back into the fields and assess the damage.”

By Michele F. Mihaljevich
Indiana Correspondent