By John Pirrung, SWNYDLFC Technician

It's no secret that last year's spring was a particularly cold and wet one. We saw fields soaked all spring, and many growers had to delay planting until late June. For growers who did manage to plant earlier, they often saw increased pest damage and likely ended up with some nasty tire rutting and soil compaction. 

Unfortunately, this type of volatility isn't going away any time soon, with Upstate New York expected to see more extremes on both ends: More heavy rain events and late spring freezes early on, and more dry summers and heat stress later into the season. While it seems like this spring should be warming up and drying out sooner than last year, it's still important that we know how to stay flexible in chaotic conditions and make the right management decisions for our short and long-term goals. Here's some of the main things to keep in mind. 

Soil Compaction 

There's many trade-offs to consider when working in wet fields, and soil compaction is probably the biggest one. On one hand, if your fields are wet but not completely inaccessible, then it's tempting to want to plant no matter the cost. However, using heavy equipment on wet fields is almost guaranteed to give you some compaction issues, especially if you have narrow tires and high tire pressure. Excessive compaction can leave plant roots struggling to penetrate the soil to find water and nutrients. It can also make tilling more difficult, and if you try to till already-compacted soils in very wet conditions, then you could end up making it worse and compacting it further instead. In almost all cases, "mudding in" a crop early like this creates more problems than it solves. 

Yield Penalty Timing 

Back to the other side of the trade-off, after a certain point you simply can't afford to delay planting without risking yield loss by the end of the season. With our short northern growing season, every week of delay past the optimal date can see measurable yield reductions. As you could imagine, actual specifics depend quite a bit on the varieties you're planting and on local climate conditions. Research in Indiana found that there was indeed a negative relationship between late planting and overall yield, however it also found that this was by no means a perfect relationship. Other factors, such as pest pressure, can have an even more significant impact on yield regardless of planting time. So, remember that late planting yield losses aren't the only yield loss risks to consider. 

Nitrogen Management 

Regardless of when you plant, if your fields were saturated for long enough, you've probably lost a good amount of nitrogen. Nitrogen can leave the soil through leaching (water moving through soil) or denitrification (microbes converting soil N to gas); both of these can happen quickly if your fields stay wet for long periods of time, especially in sandy soils. According to research from both the University of Nebraska and the University of Illinois, when soil temperatures are between 55 and 60?°F, you can see 1-2% of your soil nitrogen lost per day, with daily losses doubling if your soil is warmer than 70?°F. This is all to say that cool, wet soils can be depleted of nitrogen pretty quickly, and that warm, wet soils can be depleted very quickly. So, what's the management response? If you feel like you're losing a lot of pre-season nitrogen, factor that into a split or sidedress application. If you're willing, you can also opt for some soil tests, including the Pre-Sidedress Nitrate Test (PSNT) to identify exactly what your nitrogen needs are. 

A Note on Slugs 

If you planted early last spring, then you almost certainly encountered some slug damage. Slugs thrive in the cool, wet fields we had last year, especially in fields with lots of residue. If you have no-till, cover-cropped, or residue-heavy fields, then expect to see them again this year. If slugs have been an issue for you in the past, then it's certainly worth scouting for them and applying control methods (like slug pellets) depending on pressures. 

Long-Term Infrastructure 

If you're interested in playing the long game and want to invest into your land, then installing new or additional tile drainage systems can help reduce flooding after major rain events, especially if you have clay-heavy soils. You can also try to build up more soil organic matter in your fields to assist drainage, or you can incorporate cover crops. As mentioned in last month's newsletter, cover crops can help you remove excess water through transpiration and can improve soil structure to prevent ponding. In any case, if you want to improve the long-term resilience of your fields against excessively rainy springs, then focus on drainage systems and soil structure. 

Going Forward 

Whether you're focused on the short-term decisions you'll be making this month, or the long-term sustainability of your farm in the face of increasingly volatile weather, it's always wise to lay out all the trade-offs you're dealing with. Consider the biggest threats a wet spring creates for you. Whether it's inaccessible fields, nitrogen losses, or an army of hungry slugs, there are still many ways to respond to each issue. If last year's late plantings taught us anything, it's that remaining flexible is key to making the best out of a muddy situation.