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Farmer is focusing on fieldwork, not in a rush to plant

Fieldwork is underway for central Ohio farmer John Linder.

“At this point we’re warmer and drier than normal,” he says. “We’ve got decent soil moisture. I’m putting on a little fertilizer with a strip-tiller to plant corn over and right now I’m making dust, but I’m turning up moisture in the strips.”

He says conditions are nearly ideal.

“If it were a little later in the month, we’d probably be planting corn,” he says. “This is not what we normally have for the spring. We don’t usually get the strip-tiller going in the spring this is typically a fall application. We weren’t able to last fall so we’re taking advantage of that this spring.”

Linder, who is president of the National Corn Growers Association, says he’s not in a rush to begin planting.

“Twice in my career we’ve planted all of our corn in April and could have waited until the middle of May to plant and actually turn out as good if not better,” he says. “It depends on the weather you get after planting and we could turn cold after a nice warm spell like this. We’re not rushing to plant and instead are taking care of the things that will let us hit the ground running when it’s the right time.”   

He raises corn, soybeans, soft red winter wheat, and soybeans for seed in Morrow County.