Farmers trying to harvest dry hay will be happy to turn the calendar to July. June will be in the record book as the wettest June ever for most of Western Pennsylvania.

Producers are not only unable to harvest dry hay; they also can’t harvest barley or apply fertilizer and herbicides.

Essentially the fields and pastures are just too saturated. One week of warm, dry weather could turn things around, but the forecast doesn’t look good for that to occur.

Some fields will not be planted since it is getting too late in the planting season for corn or soybeans to mature.

Hay harvest is one month behind the normal schedule, which could impact second and third crop harvests. Hay quality will also be reduced due to over maturity. One thing is that mulch hay will be in good supply for those needing mulch hay for erosion control and seeding projects.

Many dairy producers harvested their first cutting as haylage but now are unable to make quality second cut hay for milk production.

Time to report

A final reminder is being provided to all producers that July 15 is the final day to report all crop and land uses to FSA for corn, soybeans, sweet corn, fruits and vegetables. Producers enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) have until July 15 to report the CREP acres.

FSA program participants are required to file acreage reports. Acreage reports not filed by the July 15 deadline will be assessed a late fee.

For those producers who maintain crop insurance, a summary acreage report will be provided to the producer that can in turn be provided to the crop insurance agent. Small grain crops that will be harvested as forage can be reported to FSA up until July 15.

It would be much easier on everyone if there was just one deadline date, but at this point that does not seem possible.

To summarize the reporting deadlines are:

• Sept. 30 — Turf grass, sod, Christmas trees, aquaculture, ornamental nursery, ginseng, mushrooms

• Nov. 15 — Apiculture, fall forage seeding, prf/perennial forage, fall-seeded small grains

• Jan. 2 — Honey

• Jan. 15 — Apples, grapes, peaches, pears, maple sap

• May 31 — Nursery

• June 15 — Spring barley, spring forage seeding, spring oats, rye, triticale, spring wheat

• July 15 — All other crops including CRP and CREP ground

• Aug. 15 — Beans, cabbage

Aerial photographs can be requested via mail, and they can be completed at home and returned by mail or in person to the office.

Once the report is entered in the computer system a paper report is generated which requires the producer’s signature. It normally takes about 20 minutes to complete an acreage report for a farm.

Some producers feel more comfortable completing their reports at the office while others prefer to do theirs at home. Either way is acceptable; the important thing is to get it done.

Sometimes a future program depends upon previous years reported crop acres. We have some producers who file an acreage report each year just so documentation is on file of the crops produced for the IRS.

FSA currently has 2013 aerial digital imagery.

Luke Fritz is executive director of the Butler County Farm Service Agency.