AMES, Iowa — Agricultural experts are sending out a plethora of advice about what farmers should look for this season after the unusually warm, wet winter. Farmers across the region seem to see the weather conditions as a good thing, but extension experts are warning of unique challenges.

In a series of e-newsletters published by universities’ extension personnel late last month, they enumerated potential weed and insect problems. For example, Bob Hartzler and Mike Owen of Iowa State University warned farmers that annuals might be especially abundant this season.

“Winter annuals in no-till fields will likely accumulate much more biomass prior to planting than normal, and therefore use more soil moisture, tie up more nutrients and potentially interfere with planting and crop establishment,” they wrote in Early Early-Spring Weed Management. “In addition, weeds such as horseweed (marestail) will grow more rapidly and reach growth stages that are difficult to control much sooner than in a ‘normal’ spring.”

They also wrote many farmers will want to include pre-emergence herbicides with early spring burndown treatments, but that very early applications may reduce their effectiveness against late-emerging weeds such as waterhemp, or large-seeded species such as giant ragweed.

The world of insects is also important to farmers this time of year. Michael Gray of the University of Illinois published an e-newsletter explaining his thoughts on the challenges insects could pose.

“The mild winter will very likely improve the survival of some species that overwinter in Illinois,” he wrote. “For others, the mild winter may be a neutral factor, since many insect species, including European corn borers and western corn rootworms, are superbly adapted to survive even the most severe winters, especially if snow cover is present.”

He added that warm temperatures will hasten the emergence and development of some pests of field crops. “Ultimately, insect pest densities in Illinois will likely be more affected by spring and summer weather conditions,” he stated.

In Michigan, corn planting is just getting under way, since the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) prevents farmers from planting corn before April 6 – that is, if they want their crop to be covered by insurance. “There’s a lot of guys that are ready to go,” said Jim Collum, acting director of the Michigan field office of the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

Collum said half of the sugar beet crop is already planted, versus 40 percent of it planted by mid-April of last year. He said 154,000 acres of sugar beets are expected to be planted in Michigan this season. “The last I heard is that the fruit in the southwest part of the state isn’t going to be a problem, but in the west-central and northwest parts of the Lower Peninsula, there’s going to be some damage,” he said. “From what I heard, wheat made it through the winter just fine. There’s no vegetables that I know of that are planted. I heard there’s some risk with asparagus.”

Further south, in Tennessee, things were sounding pretty good. Barry Adams, deputy director of the NASS field office there, said the first crop progress and condition report of the season summed things up pretty well: that report is titled Warm Spring ‘Jump Starts’ Farm Activities.

“The 2012 farming season is well under way after a mild winter, allowing farmers to progress rapidly with field activities, especially planting corn,” the report said. “Corn farmers across the Volunteer State took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to push corn planting progress up by one week. Also, winter wheat is developing at a rate about 10 days ahead of the normal pace and was rated in mostly good condition.”