From our media partners at WOOD TV:
LOWELL TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — In a soggy field still occupied by last year’s corn stalks, Gary Blough climbed into his high-tech tractor.
“This is going to be our last day of planting corn,” Gary Blough said Monday as he prepared to plug kernels into the ground.
That means that Blue Sky Farms, owned by Gary Blough and his two brothers, will leave 200 of its 1,800 acres of corn fields empty.
Over the last few days, corn and soybean farmers throughout West Michigan have faced tough choices — whether to plant their crops in fields that won’t dry or let them stand empty. Many are choosing the latter.
“I’ve never seen a year like this,” Gary Blough’s brother, Carl Blough, said. “Every year is different, but most of them aren’t this severe.”
In May alone, there were only four days without rain.
“Some of it is still not plantable because of wet spots in the fields,” Gary Blough said.
For farmers like the Bloughs, it comes down to risking the loss of crop insurance money. Farmers have crop insurance to help when extreme weather won’t allow them to plant, but even that won’t cover their losses.
It’s based on a complicated formula that includes corn or soybean prices already set this spring, their average yields for the past 10 years, and how much coverage they bought.
There's more to read - click HERE!