After a slow and muddy start, things have started to change for Nodaway County farmers.
Well, it's still muddy, but planting is about where it should be.
For the week ending June 7, corn planting for Nodaway County is at an estimated 100 percent complete, said Tim Drier, FSA County Executive Director for Nodaway County.
That's slightly ahead of the state's pace of 95 percent, according to the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service.
That's good news for farmers, as the USDA Risk Management Agency's deadline for planting corn was June 5. After that date, farmers planting corn start losing a percentage of their guarantee for crop insurance.
"For the most part, the corn crop is all in the ground," Drier said. "You'll find it anywhere from knee to waist high down to six inches or less.
"We've had some severe weather that could affect how it's growing to this point and we've had a little bit of hail across the southern end of the county that could affect it, but for the most part, everything looks pretty good."
That despite the fact that Nodaway County has been one of the wettest counties in the state this past month. For the week of June 1-7, only Holt County had a higher rainfall total than Nodaway County's 4.73 inches, according to the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service.
For the past four weeks ending June 7, only Holt and Gentry counties had more than Nodaway County's 8.73 inches.
Area farmers were able to get a lot of work done in a short time frame, Drier said.
"So far, everything has been able to get in. They've had to rush. We had a good week of weather — (around) May 18 through the 22nd — that whole week it was pretty dry," Drier said. "A lot of crops got put in the ground that week and we kind of got caught up from being a little bit behind to being in pretty good shape."
For the week ending June 7, soybean planting was at 60 percent. The normal stage for soybean planting at this point in a typical year is 75 percent. The USDA Risk Management Agency's deadline for soybean planting is June 20.
Earlier this year — for the week ending May 10 — corn planting was at 35 percent, well behind the state's normal of 75 percent at that point.
Soybean planting was around 5 percent, compared to the state's normal of 19 percent at that time.
The rains have caused some flooding and subsequent damage to crops, Drier said, but nothing that's caused widespread harm at this point.
It's also affected some hay crops.
Drier also said that it's important to note that results can vary in an area the size of Nodaway County when put up against estimates for the county as a whole.
Burlington Junction, Mo. —
