Planting in Indiana slowed due to rains

May 02, 2016

About five per cent of soybean crop is planted

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Recent heavy rains in Indiana have forced farmers to slow down their planting after a speedy start.

“We received anywhere from 1 to 3 inches in spots across southwest Indiana over the last 36 hours with more rain forecasted for Saturday and Sunday,” Matt Parmer, a technical agronomist with Monsanto told Hoosier Ag Today.

Rain

Parmer said less than half of the state’s corn is planted and farmers are going to have to practice patience for a few days.

“Right now we’re sitting at about 30% of the corn planted. A lot of that went in about a week ago and a lot of those planting dates are just now starting to spike through the ground. So for right now we’re going to be on hold for at least probably a week before we get back to the fields.”

When it comes to soybeans only about five per cent of the crop is planted, and ragweed and marestail are starting to show. Parmer said the wet weathers and warm temperatures mean the weeds will start to bolt quickly.

“We’ll just have to stay on top of it and hopefully we get some dry weather to get across some of these fields that are still unsprayed.”

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.