It’s corn planting season, but many Delta farmers still have yet to plant a single seed in their fields.
After several bouts of rainfall, the grounds have been saturated with mud and water, which is not ideal for starting the planting process.
Winterville farmer Bill Payne said they began planting March 10 in 2021, so they are a couple weeks behind from where he would like to be now.
“The first week in March to the middle of March would be the optimum time,” he said.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service’s (NASS) Mississippi Crop Progress and Condition report for the week ending Sunday, March 20, just 2 percent of the state’s corn has been planted, compared to 10 percent this time last year.
“As soon as it dries up, there’s going to be planters everywhere,” Payne said.
Although it has been all sunshine since Wednesday, Payne said he thinks it would take at least four days of good weather before field conditions are ideal for starting their work.
“We could use a couple weeks of dry weather so we can get the corn planted and get started with planting beans,” Payne said.
Hollandale farmer Chico Williams said he expect they will be able to start planting corn Monday.
“Hopefully we’ll get two or three good days before it rains again,” Williams said.
Although he would have started their work as early as March 14, Williams said he still thinks this is a good time to begin planting corn.
“The 14th or the 21st would have been a great time to start but the 28th is going to be just as good to start planting corn,” he said. “The corn planted later in March with higher daytime temps and longer days is going to do better. It’s all about soil temperature.”
Once all their corn is in the ground, Williams said they will begin planting soybeans.
“This last week of March would be a great time to get corn planted and then anytime in April is good for beans,” he said.
