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When it rains, it pours in Ohio

A Southwest Ohio farmer says some fields in his region still have standing water from the start of planting and after another inch of rain this week, a lack of moisture is not an issue.

Jeff Sollars tells Brownfield extreme rainfall at the end of April is still having an impact on corn and soybean fields.  “When it rains here it seems like it’s in inches and not tenths.  There were some fields in some areas where the emergence was so poor that farmers just had to tear up whole fields and start over again—beans and corn.”

He says weather delays set planting back by about three weeks and while replanting has been wide spread, his Fayette County farm caught a lucky break and only needed about five percent touched up in fields.  “Most of our ground is systematically tiled so that helped us, also I think we were lucky with the weather in our immediate area.  You go north or south of us, there was a lot of replanting due to just the extreme amount of water.”

Sollars says crop scouting will continue to remain a priority with a threat of increased insect and disease pressure from current wet, humid weather and a rather mild winter.

AUDIO: Interview with Jeff Sollars