Farmers struggle with soggy weather in Southeast Wisconsin

SHEBOYGAN (Wis) – As the saying goes, "corn should be knee-high by the Fourth of July." However, with the amount of rain we have gotten this year, some local farmers are struggling.

"When you look in the field, you can tell where the corn is thriving and where it's not thriving," said Bryan Neeb, field operations manager at Majestic Crossing Bay.

Neeb says water drainage has been a battle.

"It's been so saturated, for so long, that it also affects the plants, as far as how well they can grow. We are going to have different stages of growth as the crop matures, which presents a little bit of a challenge come harvest time," Neeb explained.

Because of the consistent wet conditions, he only has a short window of time to be able to work in the fields.

"It might not be perfect when we go out there to fertilize or spray for the weeds; we got to pick a time that we can just get it done," said Neeb.

Agronomist with Country Vision Coop, Chris Reichert, helps local farmers through tough growing seasons.

"From my experience, I would say this year has been an outlier out of the last five years. Similar to last year, we were dry - this year we're wet, that's been a big change in how we're managing the crop," Reichert explained.

Soil plays a major factor – in Sheboygan County, the heavy clay soil holds the moisture, whereas in other counties across the state, "some of the lighter soils can handle a lot more of this rainfall," according to Reichert. "Those crops actually look outstanding in a year like this."

"You're helping and working with these local farmers. What has been your main advice during this time?" we asked.

"Don't give up. I think a lot of people definitely get down in the dumps because our crops do look variable, we've had troubles. But we do have a crop growing, we have the ability to manage it, we just got to find those windows and get what we can on when it allows."