Several inches of rain this past month and a half has not only caused many of us to mow our lawns more frequently, but it’s also caused headaches for farmers.

West Central Cooperative Field Agronomist Scott Shannon says the over abundance of precipitation has caused several delays in the planting season.  He states when crop fields are oversaturated from rainfall, it’ll cause “drowned out spots” where farmers are forced to replant and can cause inconsistency in crop height.

“There’s a lot of short, yellow-looking corn that’s been fighting to get some air, it’s been under water or it’s lost some of the nitrogen that it needs to grow.  I guess the number one thing I think this year that’s going to restrict some of our yields here early on is just how inconsistent the crop is.”

Unfortunately, Shannon notes that early June was the latest that corn should’ve been planted.  Another delay is spraying crops for weeds.

“That’s really the big challenge with having wet weather is the weeds are still growing, but we’re not able to get into the fields to start spraying them.  It’s kind of a race of getting ahead of the weeds before they get too much height on them.”

Going forward, Shannon says they are looking to keep the crops clean until it develops a canopy to better protect itself.