Michigan farmers are getting their 2014 crops planted. But it's been slow going. After a long, severe winter, spring has taken its time getting to Michigan, with rain and cooler temperatures hampering work in the fields.

The latest numbers from the Great Lakes Regional office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service show planting well behind schedule, according to Bob Boehm, manager of Michigan Farm Bureau's (MFB) center for commodity, farm and industry relations. Boehm keeps an eye on the relationship between weather forecasts, commodity markets and farm management.

"With the forecast we have right now — continued wet — it may be close to Memorial Day before some fields see a tractor," Boehm said. "Once it quits raining, it'll take four or five days before they're workable, depending on soil type, tiling and other factors that impact drainage."

Boehm added that he doesn't think yield potential has been impacted yet, however.

"It's impressive how much can get done when we have a break in the weather, but it's going to mean a real rush to get seed in the ground," he said. "That means long hours and lots of equipment on the roads — time for non-farmers to be patient and understanding."

Amanda Teachworth and her husband, Ben, run BAT Farms, just outside Ionia, along with their four children. They raise sheep, cattle, goats, horses and chickens; and grow corn, soybeans and alfalfa. They have corn in, but haven't started planting their beans because of the unseasonable cold.

"With beans, the growing point is the top of the plant, so if we get frost, that will damage the plant," Teachworth said. "With corn, the growing point is underground, so frost won't affect it."

Teachworth added that she saw hay cut Monday, "but it's still too wet to do anything with it."

Michigan Crop by Crop

All the big-acreage field crops are behind schedule to some extent, Boehm said. Half of the state's oats and sugar beets are planted, and as of Mother's Day, only 20 percent of the state's corn crop is in the ground — approximately half of the five-year average pace.

"We have seen corn planted well into June, but the later you plant, the lower your probability of getting the full potential out of that seed," Boehm said. "Growers also have to weigh crop insurance deadlines and potential alternative plantings."

On the plus side, adequate moisture and warm-up in temperatures means soil temperatures are finally conducive to germination.

But for wheat and hay, the mid-winter ice-over hurt these crops that normally make for a new growing season's first green fields, and there is concern over what growers will do with wheat stands that didn't survive the winter, Boehm said.

"A lot of it is so bad it might only yield 10 to 15 bushels an acre, where something in the mid-70s is normal for a state average," he said. "We'll see a lot of that ground torn up and put into other crops, if the timing works out, but that's just one more management decision competing for farmers' attention in an already hectic, delayed planting season. There's going to be a lot of anxious juggling going on out there."

Overall Michigan farmers planted 510,000 acres of wheat last fall, down 90,000 acres from the previous year.

"In some areas we're seeing the same kind of problems with hay ground — alfalfa," Boehm said. "Again, this is a delicate decision each individual farmer has to make, based on the condition of each field."

Farmers usually expect five years of good production from a typical hay field. Tearing it up and replanting outside of that schedule is an unwelcome expense, poses scheduling challenges and creates the need to make other arrangements for feed.

"But if it's dead and not going to produce a crop, you've got to do something with it," Boehm said. "Some winter-wrecked fields could be switched back to corn or soybeans earlier than the grower anticipated."

The drought-stunted 2012 hay crop pinched livestock producers hard well into 2013, but a better crop that year has available stocks of the precious fodder up to 270,000 tons this spring — up more than 90 percent from a year ago.

Source - http://www.sentinel-standard.com/