To hear Brandon’s coverage of weather conditions next week as planting season begins, click here.
DES MOINES, Iowa – Spring planting is just around the corner, but planting conditions will probably be a little cooler than normal.
April 11 is the earliest planting date for corn under federal crop insurance with replant payments intact. As Iowa State University Extension points out, the advantage to planting early is clear: a good stand can outpace weed competition and even result in higher payments during harvest with earlier delivery. But it comes with a price:. If the crop needs to be replanted, say in the event of a freeze mid-May, the 8-bushel per acre replant payment on corn is forfeit.
Producers across the state will carefully weigh their options as the month progresses, and as State Climatologist Harry Hillaker points out, April 11 may come and go without reaching ideal corn-planting conditions: soil temperatures around the state are only peaking in the low 40s.
“Right now, soil temperatures are roughly 7 to 8 degrees cooler than what we usually expect this time of the year,” says Hillaker. “Given what the forecast is, that’s probably still going to be the case for the first half of the month. There is a bit of a warm up expected starting this weekend, which maybe will continue into next week, but still generally looking for temperatures to be below what’s the seasonal normals; so any warm up we get, probably will be rather brief.”
According to I-S-U Extension, planting dates between April 20th and May 5th confer the best yield benefits on corn. Closer to that time frame this year, Hillaker says temperatures will be a little friendlier.
“We still do have frost in the ground, especially over northern Iowa,” says Hillaker. “Probably in much of the southern part of the state, the frost is out now. There might be some exceptions, so we have a little bit of frost left. With this rain and snow we might get this week, it might help get rid of what frost is remaining by a week from now, two weeks from now, that frost ought to be history by that point, which will maybe help get us a little toward planting season by that time.”
The first date to plant soybeans within the replant payment window is April 21, and the window is open until June 15.
