Setting the record straight

B-rad read my little post about starting to plant. And he had a very lengthy comment (I don't know where he gets THAT from?...). I told him he should've commented 2 days ago when I posted because my faithful stalkers are seething in anticipation to see what I'm gonna say next.

And since I'm a giver & all - I decided to make a post out of B-rad's comment: (Disclaimer: this is his comment, however - I made some grammatical corrections. Sorry, I can't help it...)

Any corn planted after May 5th has a loss of 1 Bushel per acre of final yield for everyday after that date. May 6th - 1 bushel per acre, May 7th -2 bushel per acre, and so on, follow me? This is about the exact same time we start every year. Usually we start on Thunder for some reason it just happens that way - not planned. Corn is pretty tough. It takes a hard freeze to really kill it. Frost will stunt it but very rarely kill it. The earlier you plant it the better you are. That gives the corn time to grow in the cooler part of the year versus trying to grow when it is super duper hot. Corn should be tasseled by July 4th. Anything tasseled after that will suffer some yield loss. We don't always make it by those dates every year and those fields usually do worse than the earlier planted ones. Also, the main factor on planting corn is that the ground temperature has to be above 52 degrees or the seed will rot. This year the ground temp has been up since early April and we know that it will more than likely stay above 52 degrees now. It takes multiple days of cold temps to drop the ground temp once it comes up. 2 days of a cold rain will increase that time, but that is a risk you take. Farming is a gamble period. The only things farmers can control are seed placement, planting time, and weed control. Mother Nature is in charge after that, and she is not always nice to farmers. Like right now we are way dry!! We should be worrying about not being able to plant because of being too wet, but we are now worried about it being too dry and too hard to get the seed in deep enough. There are many factors to go by when planting. Although we do say "such and such" started planting, that doesn't make us want to start. We were already wanting to start, it's just that we had parts & seed ordered & the low ground temps held us up. Some people jump the gun and sometimes it pays off, and sometimes they get kicked in the Ass by Mother Nature. There is way more to it than that I just wanted to clarify a few things.

So there you have it. Farming 101 by B-rad. I still stand steadfast with some of the stuff I tease him about (the hysteria caused when the 1st farmer starts planting...), but he's really good about taking my sarcastic-ness. And since I said this was HIS post, I will hold my tongue (don't pass out...) until it's my turn again. I mean, I don't want him to get pissed & quit reading & making comments!