40 percent of first crop hay harvested by state farmers

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Wisconsin farmers are making a lot of hay, thanks to dry weather in many areas and temperatures up to 12-degrees above normal last week.

Officials say 40-percent of the state’s first crop of hay was made by Sunday night – 27-percent more than the previous week, and 23-percent above the average for the past five years.

Almost all of the state’s corn is in the ground, and three-fourths of it has emerged. Eighty-percent of the soybeans have been planted, with 42-percent emerged. All those numbers are above the norms. Cranberry growers report a sudden burst of growth on their vines, as a result of the warm and dry weather. About three-fourths of Wisconsin fields have adequate top-soil moisture.

But things remain very dry in the north. Sixty-percent of farm fields in the Northeast district are short-or-very-short of moisture.

Tags: news, wisconsin, agriculture