In a year that was overshadowed by unreliable labor and less-than-ideal weather conditions, Ray McCormick is still finding positives to focus on and new theories and strategies to test out next season. 

Being a farming veteran, McCormick is no stranger to a rough year — but he knows what it takes to soldier on and shift the focus to next year’s growing season. 

“A lot of years are rough for various reasons — this year certainly included. A lot of years you say to yourself ‘man if I had to go through that again I don’t know if I would want to keep doing this,’ but you keep going,” he says. 

Timing Is Everything

As spring temperatures remained relatively cool for the Vincennes, Ind., no-tiller and many of his neighbors had already planted much of their crops, McCormick decided to wait longer because he has always been a big proponent of not planting into cold and wet conditions. In April, it was still cold in Vincennes, but soil conditions were not overly wet — at least not yet. 

In early May, the weather started warming up and McCormick saw what he thought was a perfect window to plant. Then came the rain and a lot of it. 

“Suddenly we got horrendous rainfall — 5 inches in just one night and that wasn’t all of it either,” McCormick says. “That really damaged a lot of our crops and as a result, soybean stands were reduced and waterhemp came in really bad…