A farmer in southeast Missouri says he’s grateful for the much-needed moisture over the weekend, which should help the recently planted rice and soybeans emerge.
Rance Daniels from Dunklin County says it had been too dry for planting and they took it slow leading up to the rain.
“I wasn’t worried about my soybeans. If we were able to put them in the moisture, they would have come up. But as shallow as we plant rice, there was a lot of it we couldn’t put in the moisture,” he says. “We’d have to plant it too deep, deeper than I’m comfortable planting rice to hit the moisture. And then plus, without the moisture there or rain to activate the residual chemicals, your weed control would be lacking.”
Daniels says the farm received up to 1.5 to 2 inches of moisture.
“We can start planting again once it gets dry and we’ll get a good stand on everything.”
Daniels says there’s still water standing in fields, but he’s optimistic by Wednesday afternoon conditions will be dry enough to resume planting.
USDA’s first crop progress report of the planting season says nine percent of Missouri’s rice has been planted, and eight percent of corn has been planted, ahead of last year.
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