Warm weather allows early fieldwork

Farmers applying fertilizer to get head start on spring

BLENCOE, Iowa (AP)--Jim Ruffcorn is spending this winter in an unfamiliar spot--his farm fields.

Ruffcorn is among several farmers across Iowa who have been lured outside their homes by mild temperatures to get a head start on spring work, the Sioux City Journal reports.

"It's the first time we've ever run in January," said Ruffcorn, 61, who applied fertilizer Jan. 16 to his fields six miles south of this western Iowa town.

Farmers hope the early start means less stress in the spring and perhaps a larger harvest. For now, it means more work for the Farm Service Cooperative in Denison, which has delivered 80 to 100 tons of anhydrous ammonia daily since receiving phone calls from eager farmers last week.

"That's not much, but for this time of year, it's pretty amazing," said Lonny Schmadeke, an agronomy salesman for Farm Service, in the newspaper.

Schmadeke said he has been in the business since 1969 and can't remember a year when farmers applied fertilizer in January.

The nitrogen in the fertilizer does not break down until the ground warms up substantially in the spring, so farmers are applying what they can before the temperatures drop.

Ruffcorn started applying anhydrous ammonia to fields Jan. 4. By Jan. 16, he had covered 1,230 acres and was almost finished.

"The fertilizer is just like glue," Ruffcorn said in the newspaper article. "It's sticking to it."

Weather forecasters say Iowa is on pace for its warmest January on record. Iowa's average temperature this month is 33 degrees--15 degrees higher than normal.

"At some point you would think, statistically speaking, that it will get colder," said Jim Murray, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls, according to the newspaper. "Here we are the middle of January--it's got to get colder."

Ruffcorn said this is nature's way of making up for the drought last fall, which caused poor soil conditions and prevented him from applying fertilizer to some of his fields.

Date:1/25/06