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Pushing planting progress to beat the weather

The forecast for heavy rain this weekend has many Indiana farmers pushing to get as many acres planted before the system moves in.

Ben Kron farms in southwest Indiana.

He says planting is off to a slow start this year.  “There are parts of us that are running really far ahead and others where we’re actually running behind,” he says.  “The rain showers we’ve been getting have been really spotty. There are areas where we have everything planted and others where we’re just now starting to get in the fields.”

He tells Brownfield despite the slow start – they’ve been able to better manage their weeds this year.  “We were actually able to get out pretty early and get some spraying done, get some ground worked and get it smoothed out,” he says.  “And actually as of right now – I think we’re looking better on weed control than what we were last year.  We had a lot of troubles last year with from dry weather and now we’re looking at troubles from wet weather.”

AUDIO: Ben Kron, southwest Indiana

Michael Clark, meteorologist with Indiana-based BAMwx.com says after this system moves through this weekend – planting progress could be put on pause.  “Heavy rainfall on the East side of this system that could have 1 to 2-inch-per-hour rainfall rates over the weekend,” he says.  “After the weekend it’s going to be very difficult to get back out into the fields.  Especially across Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri.”

AUDIO: Michael Clark, BAMWx.com

Krons says they have about 30 to 40 percent of their corn planted – ahead of Indiana’s 15 percent average.