Ohio corn growers facing crop replant
Sometimes the early bird doesn’t get the worm.
Acres of corn throughout Ohio, planted as early as the week of April 12, are being replanted due to seed damage and death from a spat of cold, wet weather that swept throughout the state just days after planting.
The good news, though, is that the crop was replanted in time to still potentially produce good yields, said Peter Thomison, an Ohio State University Extension agronomist.
“Replanting corn depends on the calendar date and many growers were able to get back into their fields by early May,” said Thomison. “For those growers who replanted in early-to-mid May, the corn could still perform well and produce decent yields.”
Though hopes are high for corn performance, agronomists and industry specialists are billing the replanting situation as one of the worst in recent years.
“Replanting is from Michigan all the way to the Ohio river, mostly on the west side of the state. In any given year, acreage replanting is normally 10 percent to 15 percent statewide, but this year we are probably approaching 25 percent to 30 percent replanting,” said Pat Lipps, an Ohio State plant pathologist with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.
“This is a very unusual situation. In the 26 years I’ve been here, I’ve never seen it quite like this.”