FARMERS STILL `CLEANING UP' FIELDS; HOPING FOR BETTER CROP YEAR IN '94

Forest Ice, a grain farmer in Alexander County, is in the fields these days.

"We're not doing much plowing or other soil preparations," said Ice, who farms about 1,100 acres in the Miller City area. "We're clearing the land of trees, debris and sand."

Like many Alexander County farmers in Southern Illinois, Ice lost most of his 1993 crops to the rampaging Mississippi River which flooded more than 25,000 acres of land last year.

"We salvaged crops on about 200 acres in 1994," said Ice. "We're certainly hoping for a better year."

Ice's problem now is preparing the soil for farming.

"We have a lot of sand," he said. "It ranges from two to six inches in spots, but we do have some areas without sand. What we're trying to do is spread the sand to areas that don't have any sand."

The going is rough, noted Ice.

"Most of our drain ditches are filled with sand," he said. "With this problem and with both major rivers -- Mississippi and Ohio -- at high stages, the ground remains saturated. We hope to put some tractors in a few fields next week."

Ice, who raises corn, soybeans and milo, said he was hoping to get some corn planted by the first of April.

"We have a little longer to plant soybeans," he said.

Southeast Missouri farmers are also hoping for good weather.

"Actually, we don't plant corn until later in April," said Paul Suhr, who operates a grain and cattle farm in the Oak Ridge/Millersville area. "We have a little more time to prepare, but any time we can get into the field we'll be there."

Suhr said he was one of the more fortunate farmers in 1993.

"We had some corn that was pretty good and our soybean crop was average," he said.

Suhr missed the disastrous flash floods that hit his area in November.

"We beat the flash flood by three days," he said. "But, we had some winter wheat in place, and it's not looking too good."

Suhr, who farms about 300 acres, said he uses most of his grain for feed for his cow and calf operation.

"I raise mostly corn," he said. "Usually in this area we can plant as late as early May. About 40 miles south, farmers try to get planted in late March or early April."

Suhr said he no trouble keeping busy until he could get into the fields.

"With a cow and calf operation, there's always something to do," he said. "We're always repairing fences, and in the last few days, we've been working on the farm equipment, getting it ready for the field."

"You can bet that farmers are looking forward to any day they can get in the fields now," said Terry Birk of the Cape Girardeau County Agriculture Stabilization and Conservation Service office at Jackson, who adds that farmers are hoping for better things ahead.

In many cases, 1994 yields were under average throughout the area, and overall production was dramatically down due to acreage lost by flooding.

More than 25,000 acres was lost to farm production in Alexander County. Farmers in the Miller City area lost productive land due to a break in the Fayville Levee, and farmers in the East Cape Girardeau area lost land for the year due to summer-long seepwater."

The situation was much the same in Cape Girardeau and Perry counties of Missouri.

"About a fourth of agriculture acreage in Cape County was lost," said Birk. "We lost more than 20,000 acres because of flooding. Some of that land was planted, but didn't get harvested."

That much, or more, crop land was lost in Perry County, with the break of the Mississippi River levee northeast of Perryville.

The flood cut crop production in Missouri by $235 million dollars, according to a report from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

More than 1.2 million acres of corn, soybeans, grain sorghum and wheat were lost, say economists at the MU Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute.

Missouri's lost crop for corn was 250,000 acres; soybeans, 800,000 acres; grain sorghum, 120,000 acres; and wheat, 50,000 acres.

The economic aftermath of crop loss for eight midwestern states amounts to $1.4 billion, said the report.

The report also revealed that $235 million in lost crop production translated into an economic loss to Missouri's general economy of $469 million. That in turn represents a loss of 6,200 jobs.

The value of crop production of the four major grains in Missouri for 1993 is estimated to be $1.48 billion. That is down from $1.89 billion in 1992.

The Missouri 1993 corn production is estimated at 166.5 million bushels according to the most recent USDA reports. That is only half of the 1992 crop and two- thirds of the three-year (1990-92) average acreage.

Soybean production is estimated at 117.1 million bushels or 73 percent of the 1992 crop and 83 percent of the three-year average.

Wheat production was 53.2 million bushels or 82 percent of 1992 and 85 percent of the three-year average

For the total United States production, corn totaled 6.34 billion bushels, 67 percent of the 1992 crop and 76 percent of the three-year average. Soybean production was 1.8 billion bushels, compared with 83 percent of 1992 and 87 percent of the three-year average. Wheat production was 2.4 billion bushels or 98 percent of 1992 and 100 percent of the three-year average.

Faced with the smallest corn supply since the mid 1970s, the government says farmers can significantly expand production this year without jeopardizing their cash subsidies.

To replenish stocks, nearly 7 million additional corn acres could be planted in the United States this spring.