News

Wheat waterlogged in Eastern Corn Belt

A wheat specialist says problems have been snowballing for wheat in the Eastern Corn Belt after many fields went into winter with poor stand establishment following a late planting.

“We’ve got a lot of acres that have just been tore up just because it didn’t make it through the winter.” 

Dennis Pennington with Michigan State University Extension tells Brownfield fields that pulled through have also been wrecked by too much moisture this spring.

“There’s a lot of unevenness out there just based on water patterns in the field and how well it’s drained.  The unevenness is going to lead to unevenness in flowering, unevenness in maturity, and so on.”   

USDA says about half of the crop is rated good to excellent in Indiana and Michigan and only 30 percent in Ohio.