Two percent of Indiana’s corn crop and three percent of the state’s soybeans have already been planted as of Sunday, April 20, according to USDA.
You can count Greg Rowland, who farms near Salem in Washington County, among those who have already started putting soybeans in the ground.
“We have about 500 acres of soybeans to plant, which we’ve planted about 300 of them, so we feel like we’ve got a pretty good start there,” he tells Hoosier Ag Today, as heard on WSLM 97.9 FM
Greg and his family own about 800 acres and farm around 1,000 acres of crops altogether near Campbellsburg, including 600 acres of soybeans and 425 acres of popcorn that is being produced for Preferred Popcorn in Harrison County.
“We haven’t started planting popcorn yet. We would like to see this ground getting a little better shape and warm up a little more before we start it.”
Greg says they received a significant amount of rainfall in early April, which has caused a minor setback.
“We received seven-to-eight inches of rain,” he says. “The creeks and rivers got out of their banks and flooded. It closed a few roads, but the waters seemed to go down pretty quickly. We do have some high and dry ground, which is why we’ve been able to get started.
“The one thing that we have struggled with because the winter was wet and it’s been wet now is getting chicken little spread,” he says. “We still have a couple hundred acres of litter to get spread and we would definitely like to already have that done.”
Greg receives the chicken litter from his son, Jacob Rowland, who owns and operates an automated cage-free poultry operation on their farm. He says the chicken little allows the farm to reduce their input costs.
What sets Greg’s farm apart from many others is his passion for using a variety of different cover crops, which he says significantly lowers his input costs.
“Where we’re putting our soybeans, we pretty much go with a straight cereal rye—but where we’re going with our popcorn, this time we used some barley on part of the acres and the other part of those acres we did use the cereal rye, but we still use vetch, crimson clover, kale, and radishes.”
So, what’s Greg’s advice for other farmers when it comes to Spring planting?
“I guess I should also give myself this advice, which is to try to be patient. It’s very hard to do,” he says.
