SEMO professor: Breach will change soil structure

With the floodwaters from the intentional breach of the Birds Point levee come changes in the soil structure that will take farmers years to overcome, according to agriculture experts.

At the request of his students, Dr. Michael Aide, chairman of the Department of Agriculture at Southeast Missouri State University, gave a special lecture Tuesday on the disruption of the agriculture in the Bootheel as a result of the levee breach.

"We have some pretty substantial issues we are addressing here. This will change the physical properties of the seedbed. Most of these changes are not conducive to good agriculture," Aide told students on the Southeast campus and watching via interactive television at campuses in Sikeston, Mo., Malden, Mo., and Kennett, Mo.

Michael Aide

Changes in the soil structure will change the area's ability to produce high-yielding crops.

Last year, the sale of crops grown in Mississippi County totaled more than $100 million, Aide said. With about half of the county in the floodway area you could estimate this year, that figure may be cut in half, he said.

"Physical problems will exist for a series of years while new sediment starts to form new soil structure," Aide said. "Not to the point you can't farm it, but it will take a yield toll on anything you put in there for the next several years."

The agricultural land expected to be affected in Mississippi County is valued at more than $300 million, according to the Missouri Department of Agriculture. It is some of the most productive soil in the state with Mississippi County farmers harvesting 6.2 million bushels of soybeans and 9.4 million bushels of corn in 2010.

Crops grown in Missouri's Bootheel make up about 40 percent of the state's agriculture production, Aide said.

The soils in the New Madrid Floodway are heavily textured but highly productive.

"The soils down there make that land the agricultural Eden that we know," Aide said.

The effect on the soil depends on the speed of the water washing over the land.

"Water coming in fast can scour, it can remove the surface layer. That's where the organic matter is. The seed bed you've created over years and years could be eroded and gone," Aide said.

As the river water comes in, it brings sediment with it. As the water slows down these sediments, ranging from claylike particles to sand will start falling out.

"Some soils may not be influenced at all. Some may have clay and silt on top of them. Some will have sand put on top of them. We'll just have to see when the water recedes," Aide said. "If it's a thin layer, you can take care of it with your first tillage. If it's thick, it will pertinently change those soils."

A layer of clay sediment on top of existing soils in the floodway will cause the soil to lose its structure, nutrients and organic matter. It will also change the pH of the soil, making it more alkaline.

"It will take years for that to form into good structure. You won't have the aeration or the root penetration you did last year," Aide said.

Sandy sediments aren't nearly as bad, according to Aide, and if they're not thick, they may actually improve the soil.

Delayed all over

Even those counties in the Bootheel that aren't directly affected by the Birds Point breach are suffering from flooding brought on by April's record rainfalls.

"Planting all over the Bootheel is delayed," Aide said. "We are really running out of time to get some of our key crops in, and that will cause us a major issue."

Rice should be planted by now, and only 10 percent of the area's rice crop is in. Aide estimates 5 percent of that is probably damaged by flooding. Corn is also past its optimum planting date.

Aide said his own crop insurance agent told him if his corn wasn't planted in the next 20 days, it would no longer be protected under insurance. The later in the season corn is planted, the more likely heat is to affect the pollination process, Aide said.

Cotton planting should be underway, but that hasn't happened yet, either.

He expects many farmers may opt to plant soybeans instead of these crops, but Aide said soybean planting will also be delayed.

Some of Southeast Missouri's winter wheat crop, most of which is already headed, is likely to be lost due to flooding too.

In addition to loosing crops including wheat and corn already planted, farm buildings and irrigation systems will sustain damage from the levee breech.

Landowners aren't the only ones who will see an economic impact from the soil damage flooding is causing.

Seed, fertilizer and agrichemical dealers, grain processors and equipment dealers will also be impacted.

mmiller@semissourian.com

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