Farmers prepare for dry planting season

This is the first in a two-part series in recognition of National Ag Week, celebrated March 15-21.

With planting season kicking off in about a month, farmers are apprehensively watching the radar, hoping timely spring rains will offset the winter’s snow drought.

Adams County farmer Rob Russell said they have dealt with dry soil while planting for the last three years.

“We’ve been short of moisture going in,” he said of the previous years. “Thankfully we’ve got enough rain just to get things up and going and hold on.”

While Sunday’s snowfall was appreciated, it’s far from enough. “Most soils in Iowa can hold somewhere in between 8 to 10 inches of plant-available moisture,” Iowa State University Extension agronomist Aaron Saeugling said. “And so to make a corn crop, we need roughly 22 inches of moisture.”

When the ground is filled with all the moisture it can hold for plants, it’s only about half the moisture necessary to produce a good harvest. Less than 24 hours after this precipitation, the snow will have already been absorbed or evaporated as the soil profiles in Iowa are not full.

“The challenge in Iowa is we depend on that other half,” Saeugling said. “And so we will need measurable rainfall in the March and April timeframe to get us there.”

One of the ways farmers adapt in dry planting weather is by not tilling the soil before placing the crop.

“When it’s dry like this, you don’t waste the moisture,” Russell explained. “So you don’t go out ahead of time and open the dirt up and let it air out. If you do work the ground, you put the planter right behind it to seal within an hour. The main thing you can do on the year like this is you do not let it dry out.”

While not tilling the soil helps conserve moisture, it can lead to problems down the road. Tilling is the practice of aerating the soil, allowing seeds to germinate, encouraging root growth, controlling weed growth and integrating fertilizers into the soil.

“A lot of people no-till and spray anyway, but even spraying the chemicals won’t work correctly without moisture to activate them,” Russell said. “But the people that do a little tillage to work the fertilizer in is a better deal, but if you can’t get any rain to put back in the dirt, you’re better off to just go ahead and no-till.”

Saeugling said farmers need to always be conscious of unnecessary tillage. “Traditionally in Union, Ringgold, Decatur, Clarke County, we have higher clay content. And so that’s a double-edged sword,” he explained. “So sometimes if we work those soils wet, we have cloddy planting conditions and that exacerbates the drying process. And so we can dry those soils out more than we need to.”

Even if the crop goes in dry soil, timely summer rains can help improve yield.

“In Iowa, basically we have a distribution problem because traditionally June is our wettest month, and then July and August are our driest months,” Saeugling said. “Well, for soybeans, August rainfall is important during the reproductive period to basically maintain or get above average yields. Corn, we need rain through the pollination period, which typically is the month of July.”

This is Iowa’s particular challenge as crops need the most rain during its driest months.

An old farmer’s tale speaks of “100 days after fog,” indicating a major storm coming about three months after a heavy, foggy morning.

“If you go by the 100 days of fog, we had fog at Christmastime, we should be getting some moisture in the next couple of weeks,” Russell said. “So hopefully we can get a couple inches.”

Union County is mostly listed as abnormally dry by the Iowa Drought Monitor, while other portions are in a moderate drought. Ringgold and Taylor counties, as well as half of Clarke County, are considered in a moderate drought.

“We’re just so dry and ponds are low,” Russell said. “We wouldn’t turn rain down right now.”

Low water levels also create an additional challenge for livestock producers.

“I noticed this winter in my travels that pond levels are extremely low for this time of year,” Saeugling said. “So that may cause producers to look at alternative watering sources.”

On average, Iowa saw 0.31 inches of precipitation last month, the 10th driest February on record since 1895. January saw just 1.25 inches. Combined, the precipitation is about half of the normal amount seen through the 60-day period. But there is still hope for a good harvest."

“I mean, a dry spring traditionally is not detrimental to yield,” Saeugling said. “It really depends on what happens in our summer and then our early fall.”