LUXEMBURG, Wis. — Robert Obry said he’s feeling pretty good about the condition of the crops at Baudhuin’s Grandview Dairy near Casco in Kewaunee County. He’s the farm’s crop manager there.

What You Need To Know

  • Wet conditions extended the spring planting season

  • Crops statewide are generally in good shape

  • Harvest of corn for silage is about 23 percent complete statewide

“This year reminds me of ‘96,” he said. “Extremely wet early on.”

Obry brought corn into Rio Creek Feed Mill in Luxemburg Monday to be tested for moisture content at a UW-Madison Division of Extension “corn dry down” event. Farmers and agronomists were urged to bring four to five stalks from each field for mositure level testing. The stalks had to be labeled with farm contact info, as well as the variety, maturity and plant date of the corn. 

“I’m feeling very good,” said Obry. “Our hay crops were extremely good this year, maybe a touch difficult to get them harvested due to the excessive rain, especially early on. But our proteins on our haylage were good. Winter wheat yields were respectable, maybe a touch down. Soybeans, look, I would say, quite well.”

According to state agriculture numbers, 64% of Wisconsin’s corn crop this season is rated as good to excellent. About 10% is poor to very poor.

Aerica Bjurstrom, with UW-Madison Division of Extension, said in areas around Green Bay, wet weather early on slowed some planting. Additionally, some of the corn used to feed dairy cattle may be harvested a little later this year.

“Some farms have five to six weeks between the time they started planting corn and the time that they finished planting corn which is very irregular,” said Bjurstrom.  “We’re getting a lot of corn that looks like it’s ready because they’re bringing in corn, they know is ready. I guarantee you, all of these farms also have a lot of corn that’s not ready or not even close to being ready because it was planted in late to mid-June. Some corn I’ve seen pretty recently, just a couple weeks ago, wasn’t even tasseled yet. There’s a lot of variety in corn out there right now.”

By late morning, crews from Baudhuin’s were out in farm fields near Luxemburg chopping corn for silage that will be used to feed dairy cows in the coming months.

“You just deal with whatever is thrown at you and to not get too excited, but at the same time, respect you’ve got to be on top of things and keep moving when the weather gives you the opportunity to move,” Obry said.

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