News

Fieldwork limited by weather in Wisconsin

The amount of fieldwork getting done in Wisconsin depends on location, soil type, and weather.

Casey Kelleher raises corn and soybeans near Whitewater, and he’s waiting for the soil to dry out after recent rains and for more consistently-warm temperatures. “It’s supposed to get cold again next week so I imagine we’ll start spreading some fertilizer and scratching around next week,” Kelleher tells Brownfield he’s working on drain tile this week and he expects to be planting early next month.

Raymond Dietrich and his family operate a dairy farm and grow their own feed crops near Green Bay.  He is also holding back on fieldwork. “It’s really too wet and I know it’s going to be forty-something next week so it’s really too early.”

Dietrich grows corn for silage and alfalfa hay but says there is a lot of moist clay in his fields. “We’re probably, at least if it stays like this, good for another week yet before we can do anything here.”

Along with cool conditions in many Wisconsin fields, there are also river flooding concerns in some places because of melting snow in the north and a high fire danger in the southern half of the state.