Corn and soybean planting this week started off slow due to rainfall on Saturday, April 25, that averaged around nine-tenths of an inch in Dodge and Washington County. The area around Uehling was on this light side with several tenths while fields around Fremont received as much as 1.6 inches.
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- Rainfall amount on April 25 west of Hooper
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- Rainfall amount in Fremont on April 25
Corn acreage planted built on last week’s progress before the rain. Soybean planting progress started to pick up the end of this week. Overall, planting progress has been slowed in this part of the state due to an average to wetter than normal April with most receiving over 3 inches and some with over 4 inches. Topsoil and subsoil have adequate to surplus moisture. Unfortunately, some tillage and planting operations ran across soils on the wet side as a result.
April 2015 Monthly Percent of Normal Rainfall
Soil moisture models showing East Central Nebraska above average
Last week’s freezing temps (at or below 28° F) on April 21-22 did nip some alfalfa leaves, but overall the outlook for first-cutting tonnage looks to be good.
Freeze damaged alfalfa leaves
Herbicide burndown of cover crops and winter annual weeds are mostly finished up along with the late end to the anhydrous application season. Farmers and agribusinesses have been pushing hard the end of this week on spraying and planting given the forecast for wet weather starting on Sunday evening.
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