The beginning of 2020 hasn’t been typical for farmers, but a few weeks of warm, sunny weather is helping improve local morale amid trade and financial uncertainty.
The Purdue University Ag Economy Barometer, which gauges farmer sentiment across the U.S., rose slightly in May after a sharp decline this spring as the pandemic spread across the globe, but Purdue Extension Educator Geoffrey Schortgen said north central Indiana farmers are feeling even more optimistic than their counterparts in other states.
After a historically wet season last year that delayed a lot of planting until mid-June and even caused some farmers to not plant at all, Schortgen said a majority of farmers in the region have already gotten their seed in the ground.
“Surprisingly between the wet start to spring and that cold snap in May, things are looking really good,” Schortgen said. “I know we had that bad wind storm, but the rain that came with it was definitely helpful.”
Some corn in Huntington, Miami, Grant, Wabash and Clinton counties is already nearing a foot tall.
Although two-thirds of the farmers in America would like to see more federal assistance to offset issues related to trade and the pandemic, according to the Purdue barometer report, Schortgen said people in the region are happy with how the weather has improved dramatically since last year.
“I think we should be close to the knee high by the 4th of July for corn. As far as temperatures, COVID-19 and everything else, it seems like the county is doing really well in terms of getting seed in the ground,” he said. “Some people have even begun cutting their hay and getting their alfalfa cuttings in, so things are off to about as good of a start as we can think about for spring.”
The national sentiment around agriculture is relatively unchanged compared to May 2019 – the lowest barometer reading of the year – where flooded fields left farmers concerned about yields, but Purdue researchers say most of this year’s worries center around COVID-19 and lack of market access.
“Farmers’ concern about their financial position, and the impact coronavirus is having on their operation, was evident when asked what they expected to happen to farmers’ equity or wealth over the next year,” Purdue researchers James Minert and Michael Langemeier wrote in their report. “Sixty-one percent of respondents to the May survey said they expected farmers’ equity to decline over the next 12 months. When this same question was last posed in February 2020, just 28 percent of farmers said they expected farmers’ equity to decline in the upcoming year.”
With some ethanol plants resuming production and slaughterhouses opening back up, Hoosier farmers are working hard, Schortgen says, to plan for the year ahead to increase profitability.
“I think everyone has just been chugging along with COVID in the background. I talked to some folks yesterday and I think once the weather turned for the better, they were all full steam ahead,” he said. “I think they are really happy that they got what they got in when they did.”
Schortgen said the wind storms last week caused some alarm for farmers, but overall he said the storms didn’t seem to affect plant growth too negatively.
“It was growing really well. Then we had that horrible wind storm,” Schortgen said. “Yeah, that wind will kind of knock it down a bit, but it’s almost a good thing because that will harden those plants off pretty nicely and get them jostled around where they are not as delicate.”
The National Weather Service of Northern Indiana predicts that the next three to four weeks will see 50 percent above average rainfall but nearly average temperatures, but the long-term forecasts predict the summer season to be above average in terms of temperatures and rain totals.
Having too much or too little rain can always be a problem, Schortgen says, but the recent weather is helping harden the plants off and get the season off to a better start than past years.
“We had such a switch from cooler temperatures to those 90-degree, summer-like temperatures that we typically wouldn’t see until mid-June, late-June, early-July… We are at the point right now where if we get sunny days like this, the sky’s blue and the sun is beating down, that’s great for plant growth,” he said.
Schortgen wants to remind farmers to check the Office of the Indiana State Chemist for updates on the usage of Dicamba, a relatively new pesticide that Schortgen said is highly regulated, since the office is providing ongoing updates to policies limiting its usage. He said farmers can call their local Purdue Extension Office for help regarding Dicamba usage.
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