Eye on Agriculture - Spraying Time

Field work has reached a fevered pitch across most of the state this week as farmers race to get ...  More »

Field work has reached a fevered pitch across most of the state this week as farmers race to get crops sprayed or just finish planting before the rain once again starts to fall. (Richard Haugeberg, Farms Near Max) The last three weeks I think we were able to seed one day and I tried yesterday again and it was nothing but mush underneath. It was just so wet. So were trying to get caught up on a little spraying here. Tuesday Richard Haugeberg was rolling through his hilly fields near Max trying to get his pea crop sprayed for broadleaf weeds. Typically it's a task that's pretty uneventful but with all the rain, a soggy low spot could mean a hours of delay. (Haugeberg) We got this thing stuck down on the other end of this field here when we were spraying the burndown. And it was... we spent seven hours getting it out. The saturated soil is thanks to several intense storms that have soaked the countryside. Haugeberg and many others in the area have been under or around the bulls-eye of these storms. (Haugeberg) You hate to kick on moisture. It's great, we like to see it. But we've had two and a half inches the last three weeks, every week. That has left the ground in a few fields too saturated to even plant. That presents a problem. Tuesday was the insurance deadline to seed Spring wheat in Ward County. Farmers can still plant their crop but they won't get the coverage that they would most likely want. (Haugeberg) You can still seed after that with a little bit of loss of your guarantee and I guess we'll look at it. But if we weren't forecasting rain maybe in a couple more days like this it would really help. Unfortunately its looking like the weather isn't going to cooperate. So until the rains starts to fall producers will be doing their best to get the crops in or the last acre sprayed. Near Max with Your Eye On Agriculture, Shaun Sipma KX News.  « Less