Area farmers prepare to grow more cotton, less corn

If they haven't already, Southeast Missouri farmers are about to get their hands dirty as they begin planting this year's crops. But many are waiting until the soil warms up and the April showers go away.

April is the traditional month for planting corn, cotton and rice, and May is better to plant soybeans, said Dr. Michael Aide, professor and chairman of the Department of Agriculture at Southeast Missouri State University.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday released its 2014 Prospective Plantings report, showing Missouri farmers plan to plant less corn, soybeans and wheat while increasing their cotton crop.

Rick Faulkner, who owns a farm in La Forge, Mo., about 15 miles south of Sikeston, Mo., on Wednesday said he is not shifting too much from his crop-planting plan he used last year.

"If anything, I would take probably some corn ground and put in cotton," he said.

Faulkner said he rented more ground for planting cotton, and will plant about the same amount of corn but fewer soybeans.

Faulkner has not yet started planting because the ground still is too cool, but he hopes to begin next week after a few days of warmer weather.

No matter how much a farmer plans ahead of time, weather can always alter those plans.

Those in the agriculture industry can speculate forever about this year's potential planting and harvest, said Anthony Ohmes, regional agronomy specialist at the University of Missouri Extension Center in the southeast region, but until crops are in the ground, it is difficult to be certain.

This spring's weather so far seems to be more cooperative than last year's, which remained cool and wet into May, but that could change next week, Ohmes said.

Farmers are gearing up for the season, getting their fields fertilized and conducting burndown applications, or applying herbicides to fields to kill weeds while keeping the soil in place, which reduces erosion, he said. Burndown applications typically are done a couple weeks before planting begins.

Farmers in the Bootheel have begun planting corn, and farmers farther north should not be too far behind.

"Weather like this will start warming that ground up," Ohmes said. A ground temperature of 55 degrees is ideal for planting corn.

Should the weather not warm up and dry out, Ohmes estimated farmers most likely will plant less corn and more soybeans.

The U.S. acreage for soybeans is up 6 percent from last year at 81.5 million acres -- a record high, according to the Prospective Plantings report. Missouri and Oklahoma are the only two states planning to decrease their soybean crops, according to a news release from the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture.

Aide agreed that if the weather stays cool or if it rains a lot, farmers will plant less corn and more soybeans because soybeans can be planted a month after the corn-planting window of opportunity closes. If a farmer waits too long to plant corn, it will try to pollinate in the heat of summer and yields will drop, he said.

"There is a definitive opportunity window to plant, and if you get beyond that you should go for something else," Aide said.

The U.S. corn crop is projected to be about 4 percent less compared to last year, and down 1 percent in the state, according to the report.

If corn is planted as expected, it will be the smallest planting of corn in the past four years, but the fifth-largest corn crop planting in U.S. history, Aide said. More corn has been planted during the past four years than ever before, partly because of the international markets and use of corn-derived ethanol.

Ross Peterson is a specialty crop grower who co-owns the 2.5-acre Laughing Stalk Farmstead north of Cape Girardeau with his wife, Emily Scifers. The two decided to plant between 800 and 1,000 gypsy broccoli plants on their vegetable farm Wednesday afternoon, after debating whether to do so earlier in the day because of the weather.

Cole crops, or crops in the mustard family such as broccoli and kale, need to be planted early in the spring so they can mature before it gets too hot, Peterson said.

"We thought this morning was going to be a go, go, go," but there were not enough warm, breezy days between last week's rain, he said Wednesday morning. If the ground is too cool, the seeds don't germinate as fast and farmers run the risk of their seeds rotting.

Though specialty crop farmers do not necessarily use a Prospective Plantings report or the commodity market to determine how much of what crop they want to plant, weather systems still affect planting decisions.

"Unless we are delayed so much by the weather that we can't get things into the ground," the planting of the farm's 40 different types of vegetables generally stays the same from year to year.

Faulkner and Peterson said as farmers, they have to be optimistic, and they remain so at the start of the planting season.

No matter what crops farmers end up planting, they still are planting profitable crops that return equity to the county, Aide said.

"The value of corn is great. The value of soy beans is great. So, if you switch one to the other, it's still great," he said.

ashedd@semissourian.com

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