The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
What a difference a month can make!
After experiencing its driest ever March, Foster County had one of its wettest ever Aprils.
Two major storms hit our country in April, bringing rain, snow, cold and wind.
Between April 1 and April 30, the NDAWN station at the NDSU Carrington REC received 3.7 inches of precipitation, which is 2.5 inches greater than normal.
Daytimes highs averaged 40 degrees for the month. That’s 13 degrees cooler than normal.
And we had four days with wind gusts greater than 40 miles per hour.
Livestock producers reported that most of their animals made it through the first storm okay.
The cold and rain on April 27 and 28 caused greater problems, especially for young calves which are susceptible to scours and pneumonia,
NDSU livestock specialists warn that the effects of these storms on animal health may continue to be evident for several months.
The Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) provides benefits to eligible livestock owners for livestock deaths due to adverse weather
To receive payments, livestock producers are encouraged to file a notice of loss due to the storms with FSA within 30 days of the event.
In addition to their effect on livestock, the storms left a lot of water standing in fields.
Several producers told me in early April that they were about a week away from planting small grains.
The precipitation put a halt to those plans.
The lateness of the season is becoming a concern.
Wheat, barley and oats grow and develop best when the weather is cool. The optimum time to plant these crops is the fourth week of April.
Warm temperatures speed the development of these cool season plants, giving them less time to grow.
When conditions are too warm, small grains end up with fewer tillers, smaller heads and fewer and smaller kernels.
Yields decline by about one percent per day when planted after the optimal planting date.
The actual effect of late-planting depends on the weather. If farmers get into the field soon and temperatures remain cool, there may be little to no yield loss.
Small grains aren’t the only concern.
The first three weeks of May is the optimum time for planting corn. Once we get past May 20, farmers should consider switching to earlier maturing varieties.
Soybean and sunflower have greater flexibility than corn in regard to planting date.
For more information on the topic of late planting, I recommend the publication “Replanting or Late Planting Crops.”
The full publication can be downloaded at the NDSU Extension website: https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/extension.
If you’d like to receive a copy of the publication in the mail, please contact me in the Foster County Extension Office (652-2581, [email protected]).
Note: After this column was written, Carrington received more than 1.9 inches of rain on May 8 and 9. The Glenfield area reported 0.7 inches.
With additional rain in the forecast, it looks like we can expect even longer delays to the start of field work.
