News

Winter arrives in Wisconsin

Winter weather brought the harvest to a halt in Wisconsin last week. A couple of snow storms delivered up to 24 inches of the white stuff in northern Wisconsin.  The plunging temperatures did allow the ground to freeze enough that fields which had been too muddy became passable.  Average temperatures were 8 to14 degrees below normal.

As of Sunday, the National Ag Statistics Service Wisconsin Field Office says the corn for grain harvest is 64 percent complete, a 16-point increase over a week ago but still 14 points behind the five-year average. Moisture levels were still high prompting farmers to let it stand for now rather than pay the price to dry it.

93 percent of the state’s soybeans are in the bin, just 3 points behind the five-year average for this date. 96 percent of the winter wheat was planted with 84 percent emerged and 60 percent of the fall tillage is done, 4 points ahead of normal for this date.  Topsoil moisture is unchanged from last week with 81 percent adequate and 14 percent surplus.