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Lack of snow allowing St. Lawrence County farmers to prepare fields early, but concern corn might not germinate

Posted 4/21/12

By CRAIG FREILICH The lack of snow this winter is allowing St. Lawrence County farmers to prepare their fields for planting earlier than usual, but if it stays dry too long, seed corn might not …

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Lack of snow allowing St. Lawrence County farmers to prepare fields early, but concern corn might not germinate

Posted

By CRAIG FREILICH

The lack of snow this winter is allowing St. Lawrence County farmers to prepare their fields for planting earlier than usual, but if it stays dry too long, seed corn might not germinate.

Even with the recent rain, it is still on the dry side in most fields, local agricultural experts say. Usually, too much water – “mud season” – is a concern at this time of year.

“Corn is a big crop here. If the seed sits waterlogged too long, it won’t germinate,” said Brent Buchanan of Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County.

“It needs enough moisture and it usually gets it. Farmers will hope to get seeding in and then get enough heat units” to warm the soil enough to spark germination.

“If they can get it going by the first of May they will. If not, they can’t wait too long. The month of May is the perfect time to get it done” while still being fairly sure that the last frost is past.

“I’m pretty certain that some would be tempted to plant in April, using a longer-duration corn. If that’s no good, there’s still time to replace it with a planting of a shorter-duration variety. But in any case, they like to see all the planting done by June.”

With corn and hay, Buchanan said, it’s frequently “a game of who’s on first,” if farmers wind up with hay ready for a first cutting at the same time the corn planting might begin.

“The hay might get over-mature if you wait to plant your corn, or you might get your corn in late if you concentrate on the hay. It’s a question of whether or not to put the planter away and take out the haying equipment,” or the other way around.

Buchanan says that with grain prices as high as they are, the emphasis might be on corn while the hay waits.

The lack of snow cover means less moisture in the soil at plowing time, and that can make plowing easier. Some farmers have done all their plowing already, in areas where it might have been especially dry, Buchanan said.

Dairy farmer Jon Greenwood said with the fields being as dry as they are, preparation has been easier.

Greenwood runs one of the largest dairy operations in the area, with about 1,200 head on his farm along State Rt. 310 about halfway between Canton and Madrid. He grows corn and hay to feed the herd.

He said the lack of a wet “mud season” so far is not a concern, since the dry early spring “is a positive” in terms of allowing preparation of fields.

“It’s still early. That could change, but compared to last year, we’re far ahead.

“This early spring has been dry, generally, and farmers have got a real jump on getting fields ready,” according to the talk among farmers in the area and his own work, he said.

“They’ve got a lot of manure out and rocks picked, in preparation for corn planting, and hay is being planted. It’s too early to plant corn. That will wait until it’s warmer.

Last spring’s wet conditions delayed manure spreading and planting. Some people didn’t get corn planted at all.

Grenwood said the recent rains “were needed, and the fields are starting to green up, and we’ll need more water to replenish the soils. It is dry for this time of year.”

He was concerned about some hay seeding he did recently. “We don’t plant that very deep, and it was dry, so it was pretty much just sitting there. But the rain the last few days should make it pop.”

And when time for planting corn comes, moisture in the soil will be necessary for seed corn to germinate.

He said the warm weather in March and then the return to cold probably didn’t have much of an effect on his crops.

“That one week in March when it was real warm, alfalfa did start up, and then it cooled off and it froze, so we’re a bit worried about damage to some alfalfa. There was also some winter kill with ice. But that one week shouldn’t affect things much.”

Greenwood said he had heard of some concern among fruit growers, particularly in the Hudson Valley and Western New York, about the trees budding when it was warm and then the buds getting frozen. “It was a real concern, but there are not many orchards here” in the North Country, he said.