OMRO, WI (SPECTRUM NEWS) - Wisconsin farmers are struggling to get their crops planted due to the abnormally wet weather this year.
A new report released Tuesday by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agriculture Statistics Service shows that Wisconsin farmers are eleven days behind on planting corn and soy crops.
The delay throws Wisconsin farmer's normal spring work pattern out of sync, and every day they fall behind means money lost.
"We've just had way too much rain this spring. It was a week ago we were finally able to get some corn planted. The whole spring has just been an absolute race trying to get the crops in the ground," explained Knigge Farms co-owner Pete Knigge.
Corn planting in Wisconsin is fourteen days behind the five year average, and soy planting is thirteen days behind.
The fields are so oversaturated that the seeds will not germinate and farm equipment is getting stuck.
Pete Knigge has been able to utilize the higher fields on his Omro farm to plant corn and soy.
However, the cold and damp soil has thrown off the farm's normal crop rotation. The Knigge's have seen a loss in winter wheat and alfalfa which has far reaching ripple effects in their farm-ecosystem.
In Sawyer County up to 80% of Alfalfa, which is used to feed cattle, has been lost due to the cold and damp soil.
"Hay is in shortage right now and a lot of dairy farmers are looking for hay to get and they are not able to get their first crop of hay harvested," explained State Statistician with USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, Greg Bussler.
Farmers in La Crosse have reported devastated winter wheat harvests, and Pete Knigge has experienced the same issue on his Omro farm.
"We had a lot of rain last fall so it delayed getting some of the fall crops harvested, and we had to plant some of the fall crops late, so those did not survive the winter," said Knigge.
State Statistician Greg Bussler says Wisconsin farmers are faced with tough decision right now under the circumstances.
"As far as the corn crop goes, they're approaching some deadline where they're gonna have to make a decision whether to take crop insurance to do 'prevent planting,' or whether they're gonna plant the crop later and then their yields are gonna be reduced," said Bussler.
With the added pressure of commodity prices slumping in the past several years due to trade tariffs with China, this could be one of the hardest years for farmers in recent history.
"It's just ratcheted up the stress level. We see calls to suicide hotlines, farm foreclosures, people going out of business," said Knigge.
One source of relief that the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture says could relieve farmers is that they can choose to swap their corn seeds for soy, which can be planted later in the year and hopefully in a less wet climate.