Spring field work off to slow start

There's a maxim among Iowa farmers that's proving true this year: When Easter comes late, so do planting conditions.

“It's just a later year,” said Dewayne Klouda, who farms in the Solon area. “Usually it's late when Easter's late.”

The first crop Klouda has to plant this year is 20 acres of oats. He got started Saturday morning.

“We planted some on our lighter ground,” Klouda said. “The clay ground is still wet and cold.”

Oat acreage planting in the week ending April 3 was 6 percent complete, compared to a five-year average of 9 percent on that date, according to the first weekly crop report of the season from the United States Department of Agriculture. Last year, 25 percent of the oat crop had been planted by April 3.

Little planting had taken place in the northern one-third of Iowa. The crop report said farmers are waiting for their fields to warm up and dry out enough to support machinery.

“Spring field work is getting off to a slow start as wet conditions are limiting the ability of farmers to get in the field,” Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said.

Farmer Steve Swenka of the Tiffin area isn't getting too itchy yet, even though he has about 600 acres of corn and beans to plant. He said calving on his purebred Angus cattle operation has helped occupy his time.

“We were just about ready to do some primary tillage and then we got that rain over the weekend and that set us back a few more days,” Swenka said.

The Swenka family - Steve, wife Amy, father George and sons Jake and Will - have begun field work as early as March 20 in previous years.

Many farmers took advantage of the dry wether early in the weekend to burn fence rows, ditches and some Conservation Reserve Program land for mid-contract management, the USDA reported.

The vast majority of the cropland in the state is going into the season with adequate or surplus moisture. Only 4 percent of the cropland was rated “short” on moisture and only 1 percent was rated “very short.”

Pasture and range conditions were rated 5 percent very poor, 14 percent poor, 44 percent fair, 32 percent good, and 5 percent excellent.

Pastures have been slow to develop, with some still dormant, the crop report said.

Field conditions are more suitable in some areas than others.

Tim Burrack of Arlington in Fayette County got most of the tillage done last fall on his 2,000-acre plus grain operation, and he's already well into his application of anhydrous ammonia fertilizer.

“The ground temperatures are low, but the ground is dry enough that it's really going very well,” Burrack said. He expects to start planting corn April 20.