COLUMBUS, Ohio — Mother Nature is fickle and she proved that once again as the rain slowed planting during the last week of April.
The report focused on four crops: oats, corn, soybeans and winter wheat.
“The purpose of this particular report is to give market participants, namely farmers and of course other folks who trade in commodities, think feed buyers and feed ingredient manufacturers, some idea of what’s going to happen with this crop,” agriculture expert Andy Vance said. “If we get in earlier, in theory, we may have a larger crop, but if there’s some weather issues, think about during the Dust Bowl era when weather severely impacted the crop, that could lead to big changes.”
Temperatures averaged three degrees above historical norms. Ohio also experienced 1.17 inches of precipitation. There were 3.5 days suitable for fieldwork during the week ending May 2, according to the USDA.
“It’s a bit of a risk/reward during this time of the year,” Vance said. “The weather is very changeable. We had snow. We had freezing temperatures. The rain is what keeps you out of the field the longest. You don’t want to take heavy equipment across a muddy field and compact the soil. That makes for a poor production situation. Plus, of course, you want to have a warm, moist seedbed for your seeds to get started, not a cold, runny seedbed for them to get off and running.”
According to the report, Oats were 81% planted. Meanwhile, 54% of oats emerged. Corn was planted at 22% while 4% emerged. Soybeans sit at 17% planted and 4% have emerged.
Winter wheat crop was rated as 81% good to excellent condition.
Vance explained how this compares to previous years.
“We’re actually off to a pretty fast start. Not as much fieldwork done last week because of the rain, but when you look at corn and soybeans in particular, which would be the main crops of interest for farmers in the listening area. You would see well ahead of the five-year average,” he said.
You can read the USDA’s complete Ohio Crop Weather report here.
