Too wet to plow

[Land Owner]

I have been trying to finish my wildlife food plots since early October. Rain, rain, rain, and more rain. If the seed had been sewn, it would have drown.

As the tractor/trailer/truck rolls over the soaking wet fields/driveways/roads the tires rut the soil and "pump" water out of the saturated ground. No way to till under those conditions. Just have to wait to plant (Soy Beans, Wheat, Rye Grain, White Clover, and WGF Sorghum).

The opening of modern gun season for deer is Nov. 2nd and there is nothing in the bush hogged and glyphosate sprayed fields. If at all, it is going to be a late germination. Fortunately (or in perspective - unfortunately) in E. Central Florida there is a year round growing season with practically zero frost days.

Waiting (impatiently) stinks...how soon is too soon to get on with it? There is a heap of soil moisture.

[GhostHawk]

Pity and pray for the poor farmers up here in the north country that are looking at only being able to harvest once the ground freezes hard enough to carry the equipment. I helped my dad help another farmer, we harvested over 200 acres of soybeans on the ice. Field was flooded going into freezeup, once it froze hard some 4 to 6 inches deep it was safe to venture out there. Get a harvester stuck in that mess and it might be there for a LONG time.

And the sugar beet farmers who have been living high the last 20 years are facing the possibility of only getting 15 to 20% of their crop harvested.

Times are hard up in Northern Minnesota/North Dakota. And fields don't dry out this time of year, and certainly don't when covered with a standing corn crop.

[rancher1913]

maybe rice farming is in your future :wink:

[JBinMN]

Mighty wet around here as well...

Hope you get some relief from the wet, Landowner. Eventually I would think things will dry out enough for you to plant.

Of course you could always do it the old school primitive style & hand plant the seeds, or broadcast them by hand. I reckon it just depends on how bad you want to plant.

Placing a cool beverage at the ends of the fields so you can refresh yourself from time to time helps though. I do that with gardening, but my garden plots are not fields, but only about 16-20 feet long, so I can get "refreshed" quite often when planting. If the rows start to wander, it is time to stop planting til another time & just keep on refreshing... If ya know what I mean. Haha ;)

G'Luck!
:)

[Land Owner]

maybe rice farming is in your future :wink:
Haha. Good one. No "Coolie" hat and poor knees.


you could always do it the old school primitive style & hand plant the seeds, or broadcast them by hand.
JB - been there and done that. Works well too. Turkey appreciate not having to scratch to eat though.

[winelover]

Opposite issue here..............to dry. Planted my food plot just before Labor Day. Been watering it all of September and most of October. Deer sure love them turnips.

Winelover

[lightman]

I also had the opposite problem, too dry. On top of all of that, I'm in the process of making a new plot. Its a spot where the logging contractor loaded out the logs and there was so much bark and limbs piled up that they didn't plant trees back in it. It takes a few years to work this stuff down, get it at least a little flat and get something established. It will make a good one, eventually.

[country gent]

About all you can do is wait it out. Or install tile to drain. If there is drainage nearby a small trench hand dug to it may speed up the process. for some the seed can be broadcast on the surface and a light cover of straw for others working it below surface is needed for best results. For the soybeans dropping a few and pushing an 1" or so below surface with a dowel would get them started.
We put in a lot of alfalfa and wheats with a broadcast spreader over the years. Both walking and tractor mounted.

[james23]

We finally finished combining yesterday. It was one of the longest harvest ever. Started early August. Was close to half done by Sept 1 and was wet every since. Inches and inches of rain. A lot of tough grain in the bin to dry yet. Below normal temperatures now and snow for some are going to make it tough to finish harvest in some places. I slept better last night than I have since August .

[nelsonted1]

Our renter has a couple hundred.dairy cows and farms almost a thousand acres in southern minnesota. Spring planting was almost impossible- he planted our soybeans in June 20. more than a month late. But he was lucky- he had to leave a.lot of wet spots.but he got the beans.planted.
There are A lot of unplanted fields in our area. Then it kept.raining. He tried and tried.to chop hay and put it in silos for the.cows. Just a disaster. Then corn chopping was held up due to late planting. Then, when ready two weeks.of rain. He got our soybeans done.but the pods held the tiniest soybeans I've ever seen mostly with two seeds in the pods. Now, he is into corn. I don't know.why he doesn't shoot himself.

[nelsonted1]

I remember chopping corn silage for our dairy cows when I was a kid in a wet year. We used two tractors to pull out chopped and wagon. One hooked.to the machine with an extra tire on the left.side.if the tractor. We couldn't put the other tire.on since he corn row.was in the way. In front of him I had.a.tractor.with double back tires pulling. We had to only fill the wagons half.full since we.couldn't get through
the problem with chopping corn is there is a.two week window where the.corn is ripe.enough for.silage but not too ripe and dried out. We only had 30 cows and could manage hardship but a whole season of it? .

[nelsonted1]

Dad used to say there was a rule of thumb when driving past a field.of corn going 60 or 70 mph. If the cobs hung down a indicates a pretty good crop but if they don't hang down you have a problem. The weight of the kernels make the cob droop. There is a lot of droopless corn around here.

[Pressman]

A lot of the corn down here didn't mature as it was too cold all summer. Small ears and white kernals, the Co-op won't take it. I was driving over to Mankato last week and a farmer was chopping that dried corn. I assume he was trying to salvage what ever food value it had for livestock.
Too wet all spring and planting was way behind, and lots of fields lay fallow all year. I have not heard how the sweet corn turned out.
Not a good year for crops.

[waksupi]

Our renter has a couple hundred.dairy cows and farms almost a thousand acres in southern minnesota. Spring planting was almost impossible- he planted our soybeans in June 20. more than a month late. But he was lucky- he had to leave a.lot of wet spots.but he got the beans.planted.
There are A lot of unplanted fields in our area. Then it kept.raining. He tried and tried.to chop hay and put it in silos for the.cows. Just a disaster. Then corn chopping was held up due to late planting. Then, when ready two weeks.of rain. He got our soybeans done.but the pods held the tiniest soybeans I've ever seen mostly with two seeds in the pods. Now, he is into corn. I don't know.why he doesn't shoot himself.

I imagine with chopped hay there was a bit of heat problem. I saw a lot of barns burn over the years from hay that wasn't properly cured.

[NBraun]

Same thing here in South Dakota. Late spring with lots of fields not even getting planted. This week week farmers have really been moving, but that's because there hasn't been rain. Keep getting snow out west as well. Hopefully farmers can get it all out.