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Michigan farmer hopes to plant sugarbeets before the end of the month

It will be at least another two weeks before Thumb-area farmer Dennis Gardner is able to do any fieldwork.

“We’re a little bit heavy soils so it’s definitely wet here,” he shares.

The Yale farmer tells Brownfield this is the week he prefers to start to planting sugarbeets but that’s not the case this year with still more rain in the forecast.

“I think the majority of the beets are going to be planted probably the first week of May,” he says.

Wheat in his area is just breaking dormancy.

“It looks fairly good—there are a few pockets here and there where maybe a little bit of water and ice laid—hopefully we get some of the nitrogen on there and green that up a little bit,” he says.

When he’s finally able to get into fields, Gardner says all his inputs are on hand and he hopes that will continue throughout the season.