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Corn specialist says don’t worry about soil temps before planting now

An extension corn specialist says farmers don’t have to wait any longer for Mother Nature to warm the soil. 

Joe Lauer is with the University of Wisconsin. He tells Brownfield, “We’re no longer at the point where we need to worry about soil temperature. Once you hit April 20th, it’s go, go, go and the soil temperatures will come along.”

Lauer says his extension research team has been pushing up the planting date on some of their plots for many years. “We actually planted corn on March 22nd this year. We do it every year. We always plant in March and every year, we get corn, a pretty good stand even planting that early so don’t worry about soil temperature. We have good seed treatments that can handle that stuff.”

Lauer says if the field conditions are favorable for planting, it’s time to roll the planters.  He says not to worry if fields are not ready for a couple of weeks because it’s too early to consider changing hybrids and yields should not be negatively impacted.