Posted: 04.27.2011

For now, the only information that farmers are focusing in on seems to be weather - and not just Wisconsin weather, but weather across the midwest.

Forecasts are predicting a very wet spring for all of the upper midwest with some speculating that real planting won't happen until early June.  While farmers wait and wonder - this week's crop planting progress report shows not much is getting done.

As of Easter Sunday, statewide farmers only had 12 percent of their oats planted compared to 78 percent last year - and a five-year average of 46 percent.

Spring tillage was minimal too with only 7 percent of fieldwork completed.  Normally 28 percent would have been completed by now - and last year 56 percent of the fieldwork had been concluded. There's only 3 years that Wisconsin's documented this slow a start to spring tillage efforts:  2008, 1995, and 1993.

There was some positive news from the central portion of Wisconsin where pea and potato fields were being worked - depending on the soil type.  In Washburn county there were scattered reports of winter rye that might have been hit with some winter kill - and in Marinette county one optimistic farmer had sweet corn already in the ground.

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