The hot weather is just what the state's corn crop ordered

Jun 22, 2009      The Wisconsin State Journal

Barry Adams

Jun. 22, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- The weekend's hot weather could have come a few weeks earlier, but Wisconsin farmers are smiling now that temperatures have risen above the 80-degree mark, providing a boost to the corn crop.

Rain last June hampered corn production and this year's cooler than normal temperatures have slowed the growth of the crop that covers about 4 million acres of Wisconsin farmland.

In some parts of the state, the heat has helped double the height of some corn since early last week. Average temperatures in the state were 3 to 8 degrees below normal with the average high ranging from 64 to 71 degrees, according to the most recent data from the Wisconsin Field Office of USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service.

"It really looks good," Randy Woodruff, president of the Wisconsin Corn Growers Association said of his corn crop. "It started off slow with the cooler weather, but it's really taken off."

Woodruff farms about 2,000 acres near Chippewa Falls in northwestern Wisconsin with about 650 acres devoted to field corn. Drought has been a big concern for farmers in that part of the state, while too much water has been the problem in recent years in the lower third of Wisconsin.

In Dane County, which competes with Rock County for the top corn producing county in the state each year, recent rains and the warm temperatures mean corn could be waist to shoulder high by the end of next week, said David Fischer, UW-Extension's agricultural agent for Dane County.

"It's a little above the stage from last year and a little behind from 2007," Fischer said "It's nothing we're concerned about."

More than 170,000 acres of corn are planted in Dane County each year while Rock County farmers typically plant more than 160,000 acres of the yellow grain, half of which is not sold and is instead used on farms for feed, according to the Corn Growers Association.

Farmers saw record high prices for their corn in 2008, which at one point topped $8 a bushel in July before sliding back to $4 a bushel by the end of the year. Nationally, the crop was the second largest ever harvested at 12 billion bushels, according to the Corn Farmers Coalition. July corn traded last week on the Chicago Board of Trade at just over $4 a bushel.

Most farmers in Wisconsin plant between late April and mid-May but standing water delayed or even prevented field work, said Bob Oleson, executive director of the 800-member state Corn Growers Association and who has 300 acres of corn near Palmyra in southeastern Jefferson County.

Once corn gets to about knee high, there is little for farmers to do in their fields except wait for the fall harvest, Oleson said.

"We've done what we can and now Mother Nature provides the rest from here on out," Oleson said.

Wisconsin is also one of the top sweet-corn producing states in the nation, in most years yielding about one-third of the 300,000 acres planted in the country, Oleson said.

Brad Peck, whose family has farmed in southern Sauk County since 1889, got a head start on his sweet-corn crop, but it still will likely not be ready until late next week.

Peck, owner of Peck's Farm Market West near Spring Green, said he used massive five-foot wide rolls containing 4,000 linear feet of plastic to cover about 10 acres of sweet corn his crews planted April 7. The plastic served as a makeshift greenhouse but the cold temperatures still slowed the growth after the plastic needed to be removed.

However, he likes the quality of the crop that he has seen in his 150 acres of sweet corn, some of which will be sold at roadside stands with the remainder shipped to processors.

"If it's got a dark green color it's thriving and growing," Peck said. "The bulk of the crop looks real good."

Newstex ID: 35921666

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