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Iowa farmer reports good planting progress

Spring fieldwork has been a challenge for many Midwestern farmers. But Jeff Frank, who farms near Auburn in west-central Iowa, says they’ve been making good progress.

“We’ve been running pretty hard for quite a few days already. Ground conditions are great,” Frank says. “I actually have my corn finished and I’m doing some custom planting now. I’m hoping to get done with this custom work and switch over to beans maybe later today.”

Frank says he has been using variable rate technology for several years.

“I do it all. I variable rate even my cattle manure—the fertilizer, my nitrogen—and I variable rate plant also.”

Which has helped reduce costs, he says.

“I definitely see a cost savings, more than big difference in yield,” Frank says. “Just mainly using less fertilizer and less seed, not so much a yield bump.”

Frank says he’s sticking with his 50/50 corn/soybean rotation this year. He says if the weather continues to cooperate, he’ll finish soybean planting next week.