Local farmers wait for water to drain from fields

DUTCHTOWN, Mo. -- Tom O'Loughlin grows wheat, corn and soybeans on 1,300 acres west of Dutchtown, one of the areas of Southeast Missouri most hurt by flooding the past two weeks. His soil is "supersaturated." He lost a third of his wheat crop. He and most farmers in the area can't plant their corn until the soil dries more. More rain is forecast throughout this week.

But O'Loughlin is optimistic as he watches the Mississippi River continue to drop. "In a week or so of good dry weather, we will be ready to go," he said.

Most of the wheat crop planted last fall will survive unless water covered the field several days, but corn farmers could face decreased yields if they still can't plant their crops by mid-April, said Gerald Bryan, director of the University of Missouri Extension in Cape Girardeau County.

He said the wettest areas are the bottomland in the Diversion Channel, where water was 6- to 8-feet deep on some farmland, to the north, and around Oran and Chaffee. Because the soil was already wet when the 12-inch rain came March 18, most of the water ran off, Bryan said. "In certain areas the Mississippi backup didn't have any place to go ... It was one of these cases where the further upstream you were the less the effects."

Wheat covered with water only a short time will come out for harvest in June, Bryan said. But farmers will have to replace lost nitrogen fertilizer selling at premium prices these days. Flooding removes half or more of the fertilizer that had been applied, he said.

Between last fall and the beginning of 2008, the price of nitrogen fertilizer doubled but has remained stable since then, while phosphate fertilizers used in corn and bean production have doubled in price since just January, said Dennis James, general manager of the Coop Service Center in Jackson.

The sliding value of the dollar and the fact that the United States imports 90 percent of its fertilizer are the primary reasons for the price volatility, James said. Oil-producing countries manufacture most of the nitrogen fertilizers.

KIT DOYLE ~ kdoyle@semissourian.com Tom O'Loughlin was fortunate to have emptied his silos of corn in February because the March floods brought several inches of water inside the bins, with about three feet outside, at his Allenville farms. O'Loughlin said that the timing for the flood was almost ideal because it caused the least amount of damage coming in March. His largest loss was some unfertilized wheat crops.

China and India now consume more fertilizers than the U.S. "We're not the main player anymore," James said. "We're just a piece of the puzzle on the world market."

Barge traffic on the Mississippi River also can affect fertilizer prices. Lock No. 26 above St. Louis is going to be shut down for eight days for repairs, preventing any traffic north or south because there are no bypass locks. That announcement immediately affected barge rates, James said.

Bryan said the deluge has had some mixed blessings for farmers. Heavy rains in shorter spans of time have done more damage. In 1986, a 5-inch rain that fell in two hours flooded Interstate 55 at Apple Creek.

This rain also was warm, which has helped warm the soil and has greened up the grasses faster. Bryan said cows are starting to eat less hay and "the prospect of a decent hay crop are good." Last year's drought has seriously depleted most farmers' hay supplies.

Larry Quade farms 1,000 acres near O'Loughlin's farm. The water was higher than at any previous time in Quade's 35 years of farming and came close to his house. "It was pretty scary, it was so fast and furious," he said.

About 950 of those acres were affected by flooding and about 300 are still under water. The water reached its peak Wednesday and has been receding. The water was so swift it eroded some of his topsoil. Some ditches are also filled up and need to be cleaned out. Quade doesn't yet know how his 300 acres in wheat will be affected.

"It could turn out OK, but we're definitely hurting some," he said.

He irrigates some of his 500 acres of corn and isn't worried about the crop yet. "It all depends on the weather and if we get timely rains on the crop when we need it," he said.

If corn planting is delayed too long because of wet soil, farmers can wait and plant short-season corn, a species that matures faster than the usual 110 days.

The optimum planting period for soybeans is mid-April to mid-May, so farmers still have some time. They usually don't plant soybeans until finished with planting corn.

O'Loughlin's land usually gets backwater from the Mississippi during a flood. "Until it gets up around 43 or 44 feet it doesn't bother us much," he said. But the most recent flooding on his farm came primarily from the western headwaters, he said. The water was 3 or 4 feet higher the past couple of weeks than in the record-breaking Flood of 1993.

Fortunately, the water went down quickly this time, O'Loughlin said. In 1993 the flooding extended through May and June and remained until August. "We already had the crop planted and up, fertilized and sprayed," he said. "It pretty much wiped it out."

He expects his corn crop to be all right once he can get in the field. Because his crop is irrigated he can still plant into May's warmer temperatures and receive a good yield. "This year the timing of the high water is more beneficial," he said. "We've got plenty of time to recover."

But it's a waiting game. "We're at a standstill right now," he said. "We have put all the machinery in the shed. Until the ground dries up we can't get on it."

Until then many farmers are busy picking up limbs and other debris scattered about by the flooding.

Farmers who participate in government subsidy programs must carry a minimum amount of insurance on their crops. Called catastrophic insurance or CAT, the insurance generally covers only large losses and would not compensate him for the loss of one-third of his wheat.

Despite the uncertainties, James said farmers have stayed optimistic, primarily because commodity prices are so high. But those prices are being offset somewhat by soaring fertilizer costs. "It increases the risk in land that is subject to flood or drought," O'Loughlin said. "Overall the potential to make more money is good, but the risk is higher."

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137

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