Farmers are getting anxious about the delays occurring for corn planting this year.

Little field work has taken place so far and planting will be further delayed not only in Wisconsin but throughout the U.S. Corn Belt. Research data indicates that the optimum date for corn planting in southern Wisconsin is May 1 and in the north it is May 5.

Since 1979, farmers have started planting (5% planted) between April 22 and May 8 (Figure 1). Half of the acres have been planted between May 5 and May 23. Planting is essentially complete (95% planted) between May 27 and June 18. Since 1997 farmers have more consistently started planting earlier (April 22 to April 27) with over half of the acres planted by May 15, except for 2002.

One of the characteristics of record yielding years is … click here to continue reading this article