MONEY

Iowa farmers reeling from rainfall

Kevin Hardy
kmhardy@dmreg.com
Dallas Center farmer Jon McClure observes damage to an 80-acre field of soybeans on Friday. Severe weather that dumped several inches of rain over parts of the region is threatening crops. “It’s just hard to watch,” said McClure, who farms several properties in the area.

DALLAS CENTER – Many of the soybean plants here are nearly submerged.

Standing water has encroached on the roadways and invaded the fields, reducing sizable patches of leafy green to a faded brown.

"It's just hard to watch," said Jon McClure, who farms several properties in the Dallas Center area with his father.

In Dallas County, as in many parts of the state, corn and soybean crops are reeling from recent downpours. Between 3 and 7 inches of rain were dumped across Iowa from Wednesday night to early Thursday morning, causing localized flooding across the Des Moines area.

Paired with already saturated soil from a wet spring, the rainfall is threatening crop yields, especially in southern parts of the state, ag experts say.

In some places, the soil has been too wet for farmers to even plant their soybeans — which puts them dangerously close to insurance deadlines for getting seed into the ground. The soggy conditions come just one year after farmers in Iowa and across the country enjoyed record corn and soybean harvests.

Several inches of water stand in Dallas Center farmer Jon McClure’s soybean field on Friday. McClure and other central Iowa farmers expect to lose crops due to recent severe weather that dumped several inches of rain over parts of the region. McClure estimates 10 to 15 percent of some of his fields will die.

"It just came so fast, it didn't have time to soak in," McClure said.

He estimates 10 to 15 percent of some of his fields will die.

There's always some loss, but this year is poised to be higher than normal, he said.

Even before last week's downpours, farmers had been coping with a high number of rainy days this growing season.

"It wasn't that they had a high volume of rain. It was just that the frequency of rain was so great, it never dried up," said Mark Licht, a cropping systems agronomist with Iowa State University Extension.

Not only does the wet soil keep farmers out of the fields, the extra water also disrupts oxygen and nitrogen levels in plants, particularly soybeans.

"It definitely does hurt," Licth said, "but I've actually seen worse situations than we're in now."

That's little comfort for farmers in southern parts of Iowa, which are suffering from the soggiest conditions. Farther down into Kansas and Missouri, things are even worse.

Mark Mazankowski, manager of the Clarinda Co-op, said it has rained just about every other day in Page County.

"I talked to the old-timers here, and they said they've never seen it that long, that bad," he said.

Farmers were hurriedly trying to get soybeans into the ground last week, despite muddy fields that made the job that much tougher. And those who did get crops in the ground are racking up losses, Mazankowski said.

"There's not a field that doesn't have a blank spot," he said.

Several inches of water stand in Dallas Center farmer Jon McClure’s soybean field on Friday.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said recent rainfalls had been sporadic and very specific to location.

"In one place, you might get 3 inches, and a few miles away, it's three-quarters of an inch," he said.

As of June 22, 95 percent of the state's soybeans were planted. But in southwest and south-central Iowa, more than 20 percent of soybeans were yet to be planted. By planting soybeans this late in the season, farmers can usually expect half the normal yield, Northey said.

"Many folks will try to get stuff planted in the next week or so," he said. "Beyond that, it's really shortening the season up."

Those who haven't planted yet are approaching a tipping point.

Insurance plans will cover only those beans planted by early July, though late-planted crops have less-than-optimum yields. Farmers can also forgo planting — and its expense — and accept 60 percent of their original insurance guarantee under certain plans.

"It's an important option, and I think some folks are thinking about that now," Northey said.

The best harvests require a perfect mix of precipitation and sunny days, said Grant Kimberley, director of market development for the Iowa Soybean Association. Rain early in the season can wreak havoc on yields, regardless of what happens the rest of the season.

"There's a lot of truth to that saying that 'beans don't like wet feet,' " said Kimberley, who grows soybeans and corn in northeast Polk County. "You've got to have enough rain at the right times, but you don't want excessive amounts."

While it's too early to predict how the harvest will turn out, Kimberley said it's already clear it won't be another record year.

"We could still have good production," he said, "but we're not going to have record yields."

Still, things can change quickly in farming.

Robert Newton, president of the Troy Elevator in Bloomfield, said there's no predicting what Mother Nature will bring. The southeast part of the state needs a couple of weeks of dry weather, Newton said.

"In three weeks, we could be just the opposite of where we are today," he said.