Second round of major flooding could hurt new crops

If the Mississippi River crests, as predicted, at 45.5 feet at Cape Girardeau, about 8,000 acres of farmland will be underwater in this part of Southeast Missouri.

Terry Birk, county director for the USDA Farm Service Agency in Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties, said some farmers were able to plant corn in the short time between the earlier flood this spring and the current one, but this flood could be more extreme than the last.

"Now, it's going to come up higher than it was before, so more land will be affected," Birk said. "They're going to lose some crops due to the flood. It will keep them out of the fields longer. It's too late to plant corn anymore, so they'll go to soybeans."

He said many farmers have applied fertilizer, which can represent a large expense.

"They're going to lose their nitrogen," Birk said. "The phosphate and potash, most of it will still be there."

Charles Schwartz, who has crops in both the Dutchtown and Allenville areas, was able to plant some corn in between floods.

"Unfortunately, we went back in a week ago and planted," Schwartz said.

"Where we planted that corn, it would get it at about 39 feet," Schwartz said.

In the fields in Allenville, which also may flood, "we've got corn over there that's knee high," he said.

The extent of flood damage on crops is related to water temperature, amount of water motion and flood duration, Bill Wiebold of the University of Missouri Extension said in a news release.

"Duration of the flood is important because many of the effects of low oxygen on plants are reversible if the duration is not too long," he wrote. "Long durations allow for increased oxygen depletion and the buildup of harmful chemicals. Although local conditions influence the effects, 36 to 48 hours is often the tolerable limits."

Forecasters are calling for the Mississippi River to fall quickly after it crests, possibly more than 13 feet above flood stage.

Schwartz said soybeans will be the only option after the floodwaters recede, but he's worried about having enough time. Birk said soybeans need to be planted by the end of June.

"It's possible," Schwartz said. "[The river] will have to go down pretty quick."

Good drying weather will be essential to beat that timeline, he said.

Cape Girardeau County farmer Larry Quade of Quade Farms Partnership said he has some corn planted "and we're probably going to lose a third of it."

Quade will be watching river levels closely.

"We're down there where the water does cover more acres as it goes higher," he said. "The gist of it is, at 45.5, that's going to get quite a bit of" our fields, he said.

Depending on how late the beans are planted, concerns about an early frost become part of the equation.

"If they can get those beans in in the month of June, they have the potential for a decent soybean crop," Birk said. "That will depend a lot on the weather."

Farmers are no strangers to the whims of weather, but there is a growing feeling larger challenges are ahead.

"The extremes are getting more extreme," Birk said. "There's no normal any more."

And Quade, who is 64, sounded weary as he talked about the range from drought one year to floods the next.

"It seems like it's getting worse," he said. "We had floods in '08, '09, '10 and '11."

Quade said he used to be able to count on good yields three years out of five. The last four years, basically has been no crop all but one year.

He said his son-in-law began helping last year and is trying to decide whether to farm. Quade said between the drought in 2012 and this year's floods, it's been quite an introduction.

jpulliam@semissourian.com

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