After completing one of the speediest harvests on record in ideal weather conditions last fall, area ag producers had to know spring wouldn’t be quite as cooperative.
Most Nebraska farmers have been chomping at the bit as they waited for the right conditions in order to get this year’s corn crop in the ground, and Hamilton County producers are no exception.
Mike Danhauer said he started again Friday morning planting corn on his farm near Marquette.

“I planted a little on (April) the 12th and then this past Sunday (April 17),” Danhauer said. “This is my third try at it, you could say.”
The farmers who waited should finally be greeted with good planting conditions, he added.
“The conditions, if you wait, they’re good. They’re good now,” he said. “But... if we get more precipitation, more rain, it will take longer to dry out since it’s wetter than what we have been in the past. It doesn’t take a whole lot of rain to get you out of the field.”
In fact, Hamilton County Corn Growers chairman Curt Friesen said he couldn’t ask for better conditions. He, like other farmers, had a late start, but the ideal conditions this past week made it a worthwhile wait.
“The conditions are what I would call perfect right now,” he said. “We have good subsoil moisture now. Earlier, I was thinking we were on the dry side. Those rains were probably a blessing. If it was so dry, we might’ve had germination problems.”
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