Stick $40,000 into the dirt and pray: Cash cropping in the La Crosse River valley

Bill Heider is on his hands and knees under the corn planter. It’s the fifth of May, and he ought to have his corn in the ground by now, but he’s just getting started. Winter stuck around like a hired hand waiting for an invitation to supper. Near-record snowfalls clung to the northern slopes into March. Hard freezes in April, and then chilly rains turned the fields into swamps and kept the sun from warming up the soil to a hospitable temperature for corn seeds.