Waiting For It To Quit Raining

Machinery Ready for Spring Planting

Trent Brandenburg has his machinery ready to roll. “It’s all pointed in the right direction. I’m just waiting for it to quit raining so I can drive it out of the machine shed.” Trent wonders if he will have another wet spring like last year. He is more concerned with the national virus panic than with the markets, even though corn and soybeans are at contract lows on this, the first day of spring. “We’ll get through it,” he said, with the farmer’s eternal spring optimism.

A week of steady, and at times, heavy, rainfall has thoroughly saturated the soil. A quick warm-up would help dry the cultivation zone enough to plant, but warm days have been rare this month in central Illinois. Temperatures in the 60s would be great if they weren’t accompanied by steady rain. Trent’s up-to-date equipment lets him make maximum use of every “planting window”, which fuels his optimism.