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Planting delays continue in SW Indiana

A southwest Indiana farmer says aside from the excessive rainfall – it’s been a pretty decent spring.

Joe Steinkamp says he feels lucky because they’ve fared better than other farmers in their area.  “Our neighbors in the north end of the county and the county just to the north – have had about 12 inches of rain,” he says.  “Where we’ve only had about 5” total.”

He tells Brownfield they’re patiently waiting for fields to dry out so they can resume planting.  “We have about 90 percent of our corn acres planted and about 10 percent are under water right now from the Ohio River,” he says.  “We’re always taking it in stride – because if we don’t our spouses would divorce us.”

Steinkamp says the rain has been the only real issue they’ve had this year.  “There doesn’t seem to be any cutworms in the corn and there haven’t been any diseases popping up,” he says.  “The soybeans are notoriously slow when they’re planted in April, but our April 25^th beans are popping through today.”

He says while several fields are currently under water, they did plant more corn in April than they have planted in the past 10 years.

When he spoke with Brownfield on Tuesday, Steinkamp was side-dressing nitrogen on some of their higher-ground fields.

AUDIO: Joe Steinkamp, Southwest Indiana