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State Corn Board Gives Personal Crop Assessment Reports
Wisconsin Ag Connection - 06/16/2008

With the 2008 growing season starting slowly and recent floods exacerbating those problems in parts of the state, board members of the Wisconsin Corn Growers Association and the Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board weighed in on crop conditions in their own area in an attempt to provide a picture of conditions statewide. Here are their assessments:

Joe Lauer, UW-Madison Extension corn specialist: Crops are about 3 weeks behind average and Wisconsin corn growers are concerned about corn growth and development and any yield effects that might occur from short periods of flooding. Lauer also noted in a recently crop bulletin that the extent to which flooding injures corn is determined by several factors including: 1) Timing of flooding during the life cycle of corn. 2) Frequency and duration of flooding. 3) Air-soil temperatures during flooding. To read the entire bulletin, go online to http://corn.agronomy.wisc.edu/

Patrick Rasmus, WCPB director (D-1), Chippewa Falls: Crops look okay in our area, but it’s been hard to put up first crop hay because of rain. Also from Chippewa Falls, Randy Woodruff, WCGA president, says "Crops are slowly taking off after a cool spring and people are starting to plant green beans but even canning factory representatives note that planting lags due to cool, wet conditions."

Tom Gillis, WCPB director (D2) and secretary/treasurer, Roberts: We had some severe weather move just north of us with wind and softball-sized hail. First planted corn is in the V4-V5 stage and soybeans in the second trifoliate. Early sweet corn is planted and looks good while green beans are planted but not yet emerged and second planting sweet corn should begin in the next two weeks. Very little hay was made, but this area hasn’t experienced as much flooding rain as the rest of the state.

Once we were able to start planting corn we had no disruptions. Some fields had wet spots that we worked around but overall most people got crops in they wanted. Very little hay is cut in our area. It is looking good, tonnage will be there but some went down in the rains. Once this weather breaks everyone will be busy cutting.

In Fond du Lac County, WCPB director (D-3) Ron Fenner, Ripon: Corn not underwater looks fair, and stands look good as far as population establishment, but we're seeing a lot of yellow corn due to lack of warm weather. The soybeans are fair where water isn’t standing but again they are behind schedule due to the cool spring weather.

Also in Fond du Lac County, WCGA director Bruce Tourbier, Rosendale: Fond du Lac County is in a state of emergency after getting five inches of rain. I would estimate that 10 percent of the corn is under water and another 60 percent is in severely saturated soil. Nitrogen loss and damage to the root system will have yield reducing impacts.

Joe Zenz, WCPB director (D5), Lancaster: Many crops are under water and heavy rains caused significant erosion. Disease is setting in on corn and we treated with fungicide for anthracnose. Not much first-crop hay is made yet. Weed control is a major concern because it’s been too wet for field work.

Lois Loff, WCPB director (D6) Dane: Corn and soybeans are holding up considering the recent rains. Diseases, caused by the wet conditions, are starting to affect wheat crop and that is a bigger concern at the moment.

Nancy Kavazanjian, Communications Director, Beaver Dam: Most people worked around wet spots this spring and just as they were drying out, they’ve turned to lakes. Serious flooding is noted in Columbia and Dodge counties and at least 10-20 percent of crops are water logged. While our crops suffer from wet soils, the weeds seem to thrive on it and that is becoming the next concern, especially in no-till fields.

David Adams, WCPB director (D8) Lake Geneva: Very little hay is made yet due to recent rains. Corn is looking fair. Not all is planted and some is under water. Soybeans look good, but development of all crops are about three weeks behind.

Randy Hughes, WCPB director (D9) Janesville: We tend to have sandy soils so only about two percent of our corn is drowned out; one percent of our beans and one-half percent of our peas are drowned out due to recent rains. Everything else looks great.

Jason Henschler, WCGA director, Beloit: About five to ten percent of our corn is under stress from too much rain. The rest of the crop looks okay, but we are two weeks behind last year in development for corn. Our soybeans are planted on wetter soils and are in worse condition and we may end up replanting depending on the weather from here on. Overall I am still optimistic about our crops producing at least 90 percent of last year’s yields.

The check-off organizations note that this report is by no means a scientific survey or measured representation, but is provided to help illustrate what's happening in their fields.


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