Midwest Farmers Adjust Planting Strategies Amid Weather Challenges
Farmers across the Midwest are facing challenges due to quick weather changes and fewer workable field days, which are compressing the spring planting window. Manni Singh, an associate professor of cropping systems agronomy at Michigan State University, noted that the number of suitable fieldwork days from mid-April to mid-May has decreased over the past two decades. This reduction is attributed to more intense storms, rapid warmups followed by cold snaps, and soils that remain saturated longer. As a result, farmers must make early decisions about planting, often with limited opportunities. Equipment capacity also influences these decisions, with single-planter operations needing to choose which crop to plant first, while two-planter systems can handle both crops simultaneously. 
