According to the USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA)’s annual acreage report, Wisconsin farmers weren’t able to plant on 592,808 acres this year. Nationally, farmers reported 19.4 million prevented planting acres, the highest percentage on record.
In Wisconsin, 12% of normally planted corn acres and 7% of soybean acres were recorded as prevented planting. Those are high percentages that make up a significant amount of the state’s typical corn and soybean production.
Farmers in the northeastern region especially struggled to get their crops planted this spring, at 44,927 acres, Outagamie County had the highest number of prevented plantings in the state.
Want to learn more about this? Check out the interview between Wisconsin Public Radio reporter, Hope Kirwan and Renk Director, Paul Mitchell!