A good stretch of weather has allowed soybean farmers across Wisconsin to put the pedal to metal for spring planting with some already wrapped up and the rest close to finished. Those in southern Wisconsin are about a week or two ahead of those in the north, but all appear to be happy with the weather and the progress that they’ve been able to make.  

“Knock on wood it’s been pretty smooth sailing,” said Wisconsin Soybean Association (WSA) Vice President Matt Rehberg, who could throw a rock and hit Illinois from his southern Wisconsin fields. “It was a slow start at first with some rain showers here and there, but then the weather changed and gave us an opportunity to get started and we’ve been rolling ever since.”

Rehberg finished up planting last week and then shifted towards helping a neighbor get his soybeans planted as well.  

“There’s an old farmer saying ‘well sown is half grown,’ which means if you can plant in good conditions and get off to a good start, that’s a huge hurdle.” 

Up in northwest Wisconsin near Mondovi, WSA Secretary Daniel Linse shared another similar ‘old farmer saying.’ 

“Plant in the rain and feel the pain, but plant in the dust and the bins will bust,” said Linse, who also represents District 1 on the WSA board. “And it’s been dusty.” 

Linse was about half done with planting his soybeans as of late last week and should be done by the end of this week. Heeding the advice of fellow WSA Director and University of Wisconsin State Soybean Specialist Dr. Shawn Conley, this year Linse allowed his rye to grow a little longer into his soybeans than he normally does with hopes that it will help control weed growth later in the year. 

“We had some fields that were pretty ugly last year, and I had to drive by them every day, so I wanted to try something so I didn’t get mad every time looked at it,” said Linse.  

WSA President Doug Rebout has been done with his spring planting for well over a week now and other than some minor breakdowns and fixes, was able to get about 90% of the planting done in one fell swoop.  

“From the time we put the planter in the ground to the time it pulls out of the field for the last time, we can get all 1,300 acres of soybeans and 2,500 acres of corn planted in 8 days,” said Rebout, who farms in Janesville. “We have it down to a science.” 

And with those long days running the planter, Rebout has had plenty of time to think about his soybeans and how to solve the world’s problems.  

“With the uncertainty, especially in the foreign markets, I’ve been thinking a lot about what we are going to be doing with our soybeans after we harvest them this year,” said Rebout. 

Rebout reported that the uncertainty has led to a lot less soybean acres being planted this year in Wisconsin, about 250,000 less acres compared to last year, to be more precise. However, despite that uncertainty, Rebout hasn’t shied away from planting any less on his farm. 

“Our farm is set up on a consistent crop rotation that we don’t really change from year to year, because if you change something this year because of markets, something could change next and then we’re scrambling to catch back up to where we should have been,” Rebout said.  

According to the most recent Crop Conditions and Progress report released on Monday from the USDA, soybean planting throughout Wisconsin was 40% complete, which is a few days ahead of last year and the average. The southern Wisconsin districts were on average about half complete with their soybean planting, while the central districts and north districts were at 30% and 23% respectively. The north central district is the furthest behind at just 9% planted as of this week.