(Radio Iowa)- While Mason City set a record high temperature of 88 degrees on Wednesday, this week’s unseasonably warm weather is prompting many farmers in north-central Iowa to fire up their tractors and start planting. Angie Rieck-Hinz, a field agronomist with Iowa State University, says things are suddenly very busy, considering there was snow on the ground just a matter of several days ago.

“We have manure application, we have dry fertilizer, we have anhydrous, we have lime, we have tillage,” Rieck-Hinz says, “and there are a lot of people planting. Our soil conditions are, in most places, exceptionally good for this time of year.” Parts of Iowa have struggled with soil that may be too dry one month and flooded the next, but she says we’re in a sweet spot right now.

“It has warmed up and with all this wind and low humidity, our soils have dried out up in the top couple of inches,” Rieck-Hinz says. “While most people I think were thinking at the end of last week, they would hold off on planting because it was still a little wet, that has definitely changed this week.” After all the weather challenges farmers have been facing in recent years, she says it’s a nice reward to be able to get started on planting this week.

“I’m glad to see the soil conditions are in great shape. We want that soil temperature at 50 degrees and warming — which has been happening,” she says. “We want good, dry conditions so we make a good furrow for that seed and we can get good roots established, because all those things have an impact on what happens all growing season long.”

Forecasters say we’re in for a change as soon as this (Friday) afternoon, with cooler temperatures expected and the likelihood of rain through the weekend.