USDA State Statistician: “It’s time to plant crops”

Posted on April 7, 2020
Farmers are getting their fields ready for planting. (Photo courtesy: Blake Haas/WJBC)

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – The farmers are taking a look at the possibilities of 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Based on the calendar, it’s time to go. It’s time to plant crops,” says Mark Schleusener, state statistician for the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service.

“It’s time to fertilize if fertilizing needs to be done. If tillage is needed, do it. But it all comes down to the individual field conditions, If it’s too wet, then it’s too wet.”

And it was too wet in about a third of the state, with topsoil and subsoil moisture both reported as 29 percent surplus. The average temperature was about 46 degrees last week, and average precipitation was about a tenth of an inch.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]. 

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