As planting season approaches, most of your attention is likely on the planter and other equipment. What about other areas that can affect planting where you may be underprepared?

Before diving in on machinery preparations, set aside a few days to check fields and make sure there are no obstacles that could spell trouble when you’re at your busiest.

Planting prep checklist

Scott Henderson, Franklin, Ind., has developed a routine for planting preparations that cuts some of the headaches out of the busy season. His checklist includes:

If he is short on time, Henderson prioritizes cleaning up limbs. He says they become a pesky obstacle when planting if not managed.

“You’ve got to get downed trees picked up first,” he says. “You don’t want to drive around obstacles like that.”

He explains that he sets aside a few days to drive around his fields and clean up limbs, but sometimes he must repeat the process.

“A lot of times, we’ll have a wind event between now and planting, and we’ll have to go back and get more,” Henderson says. “It seems like the last three or four years, we’ve had big April winds or tornadoes that created a big mess for us.”

Other springtime field repairs

The two other checklist items Henderson swears by revolve around ensuring the fields are in good shape. After clearing limbs, he inspects his fields for drainage problems and determines if tile repairs are in order.

Henderson checks for drainage issues by scanning the fields for sinkholes or puddles. He says tile problems aren’t always addressed.

“A lot of people overlook it,” Henderson adds. “They just call an area a wet area, and they never try to figure out why. I see a lot of people plant around a wet area when it is a tile that is backed up. They keep doing it year after year.”

Some tile maintenance can be done on your own, such as clearing roots from outlets and patching small areas. Henderson says if you need to hire help to fix a tile, it probably won’t get done that year.

The last piece of advice he has for planting preparations is to check fields for gullies. These are typically caused by excess water from tile issues, or they can be ruts caused during harvest.

“If you have tile that’s not working, that ground lays wet,” Henderson says. “Once you get substantial rainfall on ground that’s already completely saturated, you get that runoff effect.”

Henderson finds that it’s efficient to check for gullies when he’s spreading fertilizer. Then, he marks the problem areas on GPS or on a map.

“We’ll try to address those with a disk or with a field cultivator before we try to plant it,” he adds.

Ultimately, Henderson recommends setting aside three or four days to complete these preparations, but he understands that planting comes first when good weather arrives.

“You can’t pass up good days to run in the field,” Henderson says. “That’s the hard part. When do you quit fixing things you need to fix? But if you don’t start field work, it’s going to cost you money.”