A Western Kansas farmer says record drought has slowed corn planting in his state.

Rick Schlender tells Brownfield farmers usually plant a good portion of the crop in early April. “The first week or five or six days, we say a good amount of corn going in, but now we are sitting back waiting for that moisture even to come.”

He says there’s some topsoil moisture but no subsoil moisture. “We’re probably marginal as far as getting corn up consistently without having to water it up.”

Schlender says conservation practices helped conserve moisture.

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