April 10 is the day Trent Brandenburg would like to begin planting corn, but the rain forecast and soil temperatures rule the choice of date. The predicted 2–to-3-inch rainfall this week with a cold weekend do not provide the ideal seedbed conditions for fast germination and vigorous early growth. Trent now plans to begin planting corn about April 20. He has, however, rototilled the family vegetable garden.
Trent has decided to plant about half corn and half soybeans this year, perhaps a bit more than half beans. Corn-after-corn was a profitable planting plan when the soil moisture would support good corn yields. Despite the wet winter, Trent does not believe the soil moisture levels have recovered enough from the two dry years just past, to support a profitable corn-after-corn rotation this year, So this year a balance between corn and soybean acreages looks to be a better bet for overall profit.
There has been some field cultivation in the area, mainly on land that was not worked after last year’s harvest.