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Tornado cleanup and rain have forced planting delays for an Indiana farmer

An Indiana farmer says the combination of wet weather and storm clean-up has delayed the start of planting.

A tornado hit Southwest Indiana farmer Ben Kron’s family farm in early April. “We’ve been cleaning up for two weeks now,” he says.  “A lot of it was done with excavator and just loaded the tracks to haul it off.  But, we still probably have a couple weeks yet of just picking things up by hand and you know, getting rid of it. It’s been something else.”

He tells Brownfield they’ve been busy spraying as the weather when possible.  “We were kind of looking at planting here pretty soon, but then they’re calling the more rain and storms for us the next couple of days,” he says. “So, we’re probably going to hold off on the planting part of it, but we’re kind of running around now and getting some spraying done and holding weeds off.”

Kron says weed control has been a challenge this year. “They called a dry spring for us, and it’s now turned into a wet spring,” he says.  “Being able to get out there and just keep the weeds down trying to keep the fields clean, that’s our number one priority right now.”

He says there were no major damages to planting equipment from the tornado, and everything is ready to go as soon as the weather and field conditions allow.

Photo courtesy of Ben Kron.