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Missouri farmer’s crops ‘look pretty tough’

Central Missouri farmer Jules Willott planted all the acres he intended, but didn’t finish until the first week in July.

“We’ve had a lot of challenges getting stuff planted, and even with the wet weather, some of the stuff got mudded in. We should have waited, but we saw the opportunity to maybe get it in, so we went in,” Willott told Brownfield Ag News on a trailer during the University of Missouri Pest Management Field Day. “Things look pretty tough.”

The wet season for Willott, who’s from Mexico, Missouri, began well before the end of 2018.

“The bad weather started out on us last fall,” said Willott. “We were wet last fall toward the tail end of the fall harvest and it just persisted all winter with big snows and it rained every few days and the ground just never would dry up.”

The big job for the rest of the growing season is to keep weeds down.

“It’s an ongoing challenge,” he said. “You never get finished controlling weeds.”