Soil moisture adequate for 2/3rds of state fields
Wisconsin News-- About two-thirds of Wisconsin farm fields have adequate soil moisture, despite the dry surface conditions that have put the state at a big risk for forest fires. According to the year’s first crop report from the National Ag Statistics Service, only 24-percent of Wisconsin fields are short of moisture – and six-percent are very short. Another six-percent have surplus moisture. The rest are adequate.
About two-thirds of Wisconsin farm fields have adequate soil moisture, despite the dry surface conditions that have put the state at a big risk for forest fires. According to the year’s first crop report from the National Ag Statistics Service, only 24-percent of Wisconsin fields are short of moisture – and six-percent are very short. Another six-percent have surplus moisture. The rest are adequate.
Although things have cooled down a bit, temperatures were still 3-to-10-degrees above normal last week – and that gave farmers a chance to get some spring field work done. Tillage is 19-percent complete, up from the normal five-percent for this time of year. Just over a quarter of Wisconsin’s oat crop is planted, which is well ahead of the norm. Alfalfa and winter-wheat crops came through the winter in good shape, but frost damage remains a concern. And there are reports of frost damage to fruit trees in Washington and Rock counties, and to potato plants in Marathon and Portage counties.
Temperatures were below freezing this morning in virtually all regions of the state, with central and western Wisconsin under a freeze warning. Twenty-six was the coldest six o’clock reading in Ashland, Hayward, and Eau Claire. Overnight lows in the 20’s-and-30’s will be the rule throughout Wisconsin at least into Thursday.
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