Most Marathon County crops are on time or ahead of schedule and doing well, but ginseng is suffering this year.
Farmers and experts say weather is responsible for both.
"It's not good," said town of Maine ginseng farmer David Knapp. "The rot problems hit early this year. Usually it doesn't hit until July. In May we had all that rain. The only way to stop it is to open the gardens."
The sun will tip the plants over and end the growing season, but it will keep the rot out, Knapp said.
"A lot of people, the majority of people I would say, have problems with rot right now," he said.
As a result, the ginseng crop yield will be down.
Corn is generally doing well. Some corn crops in Marathon County have beat the old adage "knee-high by the Fourth of July" by more than a week.
"We've got quite a bit of variation as far as where the corn is," said Ken Barnett, University of Wisconsin-Extension farm and forage management agent for
Marathon, Lincoln and Langlade counties. "Most that got in by the first week of May is now knee-high."
June was a dry month and a particularly rainy May meant that some corn was planted late.
"May was very, very wet," Barnett said. "Unless you hit the right time period and get it planted, it was too wet to get it in the field."
Jeff Utech, a town of Maine farmer, said his corn crop this year is about the same as last year, which was a very good growing season.
"We're about a week ahead on corn and hay," Utech said. "The planting went real well. We planted within four days. It was dry and the weather cooperated. It was kind of scary for a little while there - it was kind of too dry."
Now the crop looks great and is about a knee-high, he said.
Utech also has blueberries and those are doing well.
Barnett said soybeans and oats are looking good and rye is ahead of schedule. Alfalfa is about a week ahead of schedule and many farmers are on their second cut.
It's possible to get a fourth cut in this yeear deepending on when it was planted, said Tom Anderson, UWExtension dairy agent for Shawano County.
Corn is ahead of schedule in Shawano County and varies in Lincoln County.
"It's been dry and the corn is behind, but it depends where you go," said Tom Cadwallader, UWExtension livestock agent for Marathon, Lincoln and Langlade counties. "Some areas have had the right amount of rain. We can catch up real quick with the right kind of heat."
- BY : Kallio, Nikki
- SOURCE : Wausau Daily Herald1999.06.26
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