RACINE COUNTY, Wis. — Parts of Southeast Wisconsin are very dry, and the whole area is down on rain. That is not necessarily all bad for farmers. But at least one Racine County farmer says this can’t go on much longer for his crops.
Hot, hard and dry soil makes up the fields of Jim Waldron and his family's farms in Franksville. But these conditions aren't necessarily bad for all the crops.
"Look how dark green they are. They are coming up,” said Waldron, pointing to his soybeans.
For Waldron, it's a tale of two fields. One, he planted early.
"As it sits today, anybody who was really aggressive and planted early their crops are OK,” said Waldron.
That's Waldron's soybeans. He says the dry conditions are causing the soybeans to grow deep roots which will help them throughout the season. But the cornfield is another story.
"The trouble is if you are still planting, ideally you want to plant into moisture. You would even like to see 30-40 percent. And you just can't. The equipment and the dry hard ground does not let you plant that deep,” said Waldron.
Typically, when farmers are planting corn their goal is to be two inches deep with their seeds. But the ground is so dry, they were only able to plant about an inch down.
"In Milwaukee specifically where we keep the climate data, we are two and half inches below normal for the month of May. It has been over two weeks since anyone in the area has seen any measurable rainfall,” said TMJ4 Meteorologist Kristen Kirchhaine.
The latest report from the U.S. Drought Monitor says areas of Racine, Sheboygan and Kenosha counties are under what's considered abnormally dry conditions. TMJ4 Meteorologist Kristen Kirchhaine says how the year started helped.
"Late winter and into the early Spring we ended up with a decent snowfall so we have been ahead through most of the year up until this point,” said Kirchhaine.
But without rain, what Waldron and all the farmers don't know is how this story will end.
"If we stay like that for another few weeks, things are really going to start to stress. And that will be the point where it will stress every type of farmer,” said Waldron.
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.
