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Meteorologist: forecast highlights season of haves and have nots

Brownfield Ag Meteorologist Greg Soulje says the extended forecast is showing signs of drought improvement. 

“We anticipate some delays in spring grain planting and additional improvement to drought for the Northern Plains. The Western Corn Belt locale should be okay. we’ll get timely rains and there may be some delays offset by days of opportunity for fieldwork. Probably some wetter corridors would include parts of the I-70 corridor south into the Ozarks and the southern fringe of the corn belt.”

He says it will likely be a character-building planting season in the eastern corn belt.

“Much of the Eastern Corn Belt locales will likely see a wet May, a pretty wet June, and begin to back off on the rains as we get into the mid-summer,” he says. “…It’s another range in wide variability to planting as it has been in just about any facet of farming and ag operations here across the heartland.”

Soulje says this is good news for Wisconsin and parts of Illinois.   

“It’s wet to begin with and likely to stay that way for a bit, which is good news for the dry areas of northern Illinois and Wisconsin,” he says.

As for the Delta region and southwestern states, “no change really there—they’re in line for frequent rains and a continuation of their general severe weather season, which has been starting up early and often and will likely continue on here for the next few weeks.”