Soaked fields cripple farmers' planting, crops

Jay Fischer's farm tractor and planter currently sit in a muddy field waiting for it to dry out enough to be able
Jay Fischer's farm tractor and planter currently sit in a muddy field waiting for it to dry out enough to be able

Heavy rains have water-logged local farmers' corn and soybean production this growing season after last year's record harvests, threatening low yields for Missouri's top two agricultural commodities, both billion-dollar industries in the state.

Missouri is behind its 2014 planting pace as well as the nationwide pace this year, as farmers across the United States already had planted a record 85.1 million acres by the end of June, up 2 percent from last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. States including Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have planted record soybean acreage, but Missouri farmers have planted only 62 percent of intended soybean acreage as of June 28, compared to 94 percent at the same time last year.

Missouri experienced its wettest June in 2015 since the National Weather Service began keeping records in the late 1800s, the Associated Press reported. The National Weather Service forecasts continued chances of rain today and throughout next week.

The constant rain has kept soybeans from getting in the ground.

"I think we've had maybe four days we could work in the fields since about Mother's Day. Just because the sun shines doesn't mean we can do anything because usually it has to dry out for three or four days so we can start something, and by that time it's raining again," said Harry Thompson, who grows predominantly soybeans near the Moreau River in Cole County. "This has been an unusual year - we haven't had quite the same problems as in "93 and "95, but yet we're suffering just about the same."

Thompson has just under 200 acres of unplanted acreage remaining where he intends to plant soybeans.

"We have about two-thirds of our beans in the ground, and the rest we haven't had a chance to do," he said. "Some of it's been in standing water consistently for the last four weeks or so since we put it in the ground. The majority of that is underwater today."

Other Cole County farmers are in the same boat.

Drew Parmley, executive director of the USDA's Cole/Miller County Farm Service Agency, estimated 60 percent of intended soybeans in Cole County have not been planted, and that half of the 40 percent that have been planted are in potentially flooded bottom-ground acreage along the Osage and Moreau rivers.

Parmley's office receives local farmers' crop reports, which his assessment is based on. Reports showed corn planting was less bleak than that of soybeans, but the outlook for the crop might not be.

"Corn is a crop that you put in a little earlier. About 70 percent of that crop was planted, but probably half of that has been flooded multiple times since then," Parmley said.

That's the case for Jay Fischer, whose North Jefferson City farm is situated near the Missouri River.

"We were lucky - it was dry in April, and we got all our corn planted in April," he said. He estimates Fischer Farms has lost 50 to 100 acres of what was planted. "We've lost some corn because of water standing around. It just turns white, dies and falls over."

Most of Fischer's soybeans haven't even made it that far.

"We probably have about a third of our beans planted, and just can't seem to make any strides to getting any more planted," he said. "Every time we plant for half a day, the next day we get another round of rain."

He typically plants about 800-1,000 acres of soybeans, but has planted around 300-350 acres so far this year.

"We'd certainly like to be done by the 20th or so of June, but we're nowhere close to being done and don't know when or if we'll ever get done," Fischer said. "We're going to try to keep planting beans as long as we can. I'll probably try to plant until maybe the 12th or 15th of July."

Plant any later, and the risk of autumn frost damaging the crop is too high.

"Probably at this point, even if we get to plant the beans in the next three or four days, we're at least a 25 percent reduction in yield," compared to what his soybean fields would have produced if planted at the beginning of June, Fischer said.

Just 50 percent of Missouri's soybeans had emerged as of June 28, compared to 93 percent at the same time last year, according to the USDA. And the condition of those plants has suffered, too: on a scale spanning "very poor," "poor," "fair," "good" and "excellent," the USDA lists the bulk of Missouri's crop as 50 percent fair and 31 percent good as of June 28, compared to much better outlooks in most other top corn-producing states.

"You can't change the outcome. You hope and pray that you at least can harvest enough to pay your expenses," Fischer said. "It's almost getting kind of a double whammy, you might say, because our corn prices are about half of what they were two years ago and our bean prices are probably 60 percent of what they were two years ago, and we know we're going to come up short on yield. It's going to be tough."

Some farmers may turn to crop insurance soon for acres they have not been able to plant due to the heavy rain.

"We've looked into it already. That's a possibility. It's looking more promising on the ground we don't have planted," Thompson said. "There's a point when your cropping expenses will exceed your maximum return on a late planted crop. ... It's getting pretty close to the point where it would be hard to make more money putting a crop in the ground than it would be to take the prevented planting."

The Cole/Miller County Farm Service Agency's crop reporting deadline is July 15 for corn and soybeans, at which point farmers must have decided whether they will try to plant remaining acreage or opt for crop insurance if they have it.

"I think Mother Nature's going to make that decision for me if it rains again Monday and Tuesday like they're saying," Thompson said. "If we get to the middle of July, we won't have to make that decision because Mother Nature's already made it for us."