Michigan Weather Varies Greatly
Published: Friday, September 9, 2022
The following is from the Michigan Field Office of USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service for the week end-ing Sept. 4.
Last week brought varied weather patterns. In general, West Michigan benefited from several rain events while Southeast Michigan saw a lack of moisture. There were 5.7 days suitable for fieldwork.
According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor, counties in the Southeast Lower Peninsula and Central Lower Peninsula were ab-normally dry, and counties in East Central Michigan and the Thumb Region were in moderate drought.
Oat harvest was wrapping up and dry bean development picked up pace. Sugarbeet harvest began.
Corn contin-ued to mature nicely, and soybeans greened up due to rain events.
It was a great week for making alfalfa and other hay, and the third cutting progressed ahead of average. Pest and disease activity held off throughout most of the season reducing the amount of damage to crops.
Other activities during the week included spraying pesti-cides, hauling manure and preparing for winter wheat planting.
Fruit
Farmers throughout Michigan began to prepare for full scale apple harvest. McIntosh and Jonathan for caramel apples were harvested in the Southwest, Gala harvest was anticipated to begin there soon.
On the Ridge, Paula Red, Ginger Gold and McIn-tosh were harvested. Gala harvest was delayed somewhat from normal.
Peach harvest continued; Crest-haven, PF28-007 and Gloria were harvested in the Southwest.
Vegetables
Michigan vegetable pro-ducers continued to harvest their crops, with many of their vegetables beginning to hit the market.
Pumpkins were sizing up nicely, and second plantings of pickles, cucumbers and summer squash were nearing harvest on some farms.
Heat stress earlier in the year had made harvesting of lettuce and herbs difficult, but regular harvest was starting to pick up again.
Tomato harvest was also ramping up, although some fields experienced difficul-ties with disease and pest presence.
Potato yields were average to slightly above average, while this year's sweet corn crop was reported to be excellent.
In the West Central region, growers were spread-ing rye cover crop seed over their asparagus fields, with recent rains helping to germinate the rye.
Topsoil moisture was rated very short, 12 percent; short, 20 percent; adequate, 61 percent; surplus, 7 per-cent.
Subsoil moisture was rated very short, 12 percent; short, 25 percent; adequate, 57 percent; surplus, 6 percent.
The crop progress schedule (last week, previous week, 2021 and 5-year average) showed: corn dough, 92, 85, 93, 82; corn dented, 51, 35, 57, 47; corn mature, 8, 4, 4, 4; corn harvested for silage, 16, 8, 13, 12; soy-beans dropping leaves, 20, 5, 19, 12; barley mature, 98, 91, 99, N/A; barley harvested, 74, 59, 74, N/A; dry edible beans setting pods, 97, 93, 100, 91; dry edible beans dropping leaves, 51, 19, 74, 33; alfalfa hay, third cutting, 83, 71, 82, 67; alfalfa hay, fourth cutting, 18, 3, 16, N/A; other hay, third cutting, 57, 47, 56, 38; other hay, fourth cutting, 4, 1, N/A, N/A; oats harvested, 94, 82, 89, 88; sugarbeets harvested, 4, N/A, 3, 4.
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