Spring planting in northern Indiana and southwestern Michigan has been delayed considerably due to heavy rains, but things are progressing much better for other farmers in the area.
Matt Shafer of LaCrosse said 65 percent of his corn and about half of his soybeans were in the ground on the few thousand acres he has in production.
It wasn't until about 2 inches of rain fell last Friday night and early Saturday that he had to hold off on any further planting that he hopes can resume in just a couple of days.
"We could definitely use some sunshine and warmer weather,'' said Shafer, who plants about 4,000 acres.
Some farmers like Mike Seifert of Three Oaks haven't been able to get any planting done.
His few thousand acres are too wet for even a pickup truck or four-wheeler to drive through, let alone a piece of heavy farm machinery.
He estimated 10 consecutive days of dry, windy conditions are needed before he can get out into his fields, but if there are any further delays the window for a good season will start to close.
"The corn planting will be dwindling if something doesn't change soon,'' said Siefert, a corn and soybean producer.
Heritage Family Farms, also in southwest Michigan, reported about 10 percent of the corn and soybeans were in the ground before wet weather halted planting in their fields in Baroda, Niles and Berrien Springs areas and in Van Buren County.
Normally, about 50 percent of the planting would be completed, said Brooke Totzke, one of the owners of the family operation.
"We haven't touched a field in a week,'' she said.
Sue Pletcher reported just a fraction of the 80 acres of corn and soybeans owned by she and her husband, Robert, near Elkhart are in the ground, but planting at other nearby farms seems to be less impacted by the Mother Nature.
"Over in Nappanee, they're in the fields,'' said Pletcher, who noted the chilly weather hasn't done farmers any favors.
"There's very little ground planted and what is planted is yellow and not coming up very fast,'' she said.
The Lookwell Farm near Elkhart also reported major planting delays.
Seifert said the situation right now isn't to the point it was in 1996, when the entire crop was hurt from late planting. Still, he feels it's important for the 10- day forecast of mostly dry weather to come true.
Totzke agrees the situation is not dire yet, feeling there's still plenty of time for the weather to dry out and have a productive growing season.
The problem hasn't been much in terms of heavy downpours, but lighter rains spaced just a day or two days apart.
"It doesn't have enough time to dry out before it rains again,'' said Seifert, whose situation isn't helped by having a lot of slow draining clay in the soil.
Shafer is an area where the soil is more sandy, but it's still been wet enough particuarly over the past week for water to start creeping close to the top of some of the drainage ditches and rivers.
"It'll just take some time to where we like it to be,'' said Shafer, who added the recent planting delays in the LaCrosse area were the first to occur for any extended period of time so far this season.
He said some of his corn and soybeans are beginning to emerge, but warmer temperatures are needed to reverse what, so far, has been stunted growth.
"You'd like to see it warmer and get off to a quicker start,'' said Shafer.