CORN MIGHT NOT BE KNEE-HIGH, BUT THE WATER IS

Farm experts say corn should be knee-high by the Fourth of July, but in some Southern Illinois and Southeast Missouri fields, the water is that deep.

"We have about 18,000 to 20,000 acres of farmland under water in Alexander County in extreme Southern Illinois," said Jess Cushman, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agriculture Stabilization and Conservation Service in Alexander and Pulaski counties.

That was a "guestimate" made July 2, when the Mississippi River was at 35.2 feet at Cape Girardeau. The river was at 38.5 feet Tuesday and was expected to be at 40.5 Thursday.

With a crest of 43.5 expected by the middle of next week, a lot more farmland may be flooded in the county, said Cushman.

"A lot of this land had been planted," he said. "We really won't have a complete report until July 15, when crop reports are due in our office."

Alexander County is one of the hardest hit counties in the state. The county, which has about 57,000 acres of farmland, has been named a disaster area.

"Alexander and Jackson counties were declared disaster areas more than a month ago," said Cushman.

Only recently, Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar joined governors from Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin in seeking congressional ap

proval of a measure to assist farmers facing losses due to heavy rains.

"The rains and flooding rivers have delayed or prevented planting in much of Illinois," said Edgar. "I have asked U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espey to support legislation that will limit affected farmers' losses.

Weather woes have been limited to a handful of northern and southern counties where rain has delayed soybean planting, swamped young corn, and, in some extreme cases, prevented farmers from getting into the fields.

In central Illinois, home of some of the most fertile land in the nation, corn and soybeans were delayed only a few weeks. Statewide, more than 70 percent of both of those grain crops are rated in good condition.

"We have some decent crops in Alexander and Pulaski counties," said Cushman. "In some cases in Pulaski county, the corn is well over knee-high, and in other areas the corn is already tasseling.

The hardest hit farmers in Alexander County are those in the bottom areas along the Mississippi River. "There's a lot of water standing in those fields," said Cushman.

More than one-half of one northern Alexander farm operation that of William E. and Randy Colyer is under water.

"We farm about 3,500 acres," said Randy Colyer. "About 2,000 acres of it has water standing."

There's another problem for some Alexander and Pulaski county farmers, said Cushman.

"Ironically, some areas will be needing rain soon," he said. "Some producers are planting crops right now. Those crops will need rain to do well."

Union County is also experiencing difficulties with river flooding.

"We don't have any percentages yet," said Brenda Tripp of the Union County ASCS office. "But we're estimating that as many as 5,000 acres of farmland are under water along the Mississippi River area.

"A lot of farmers are facing a financial hardship," said Tripp. "Even some of the hill farmers have been hit hard this year. Planting has been late, wheat harvest was late, and the farmers lost some of their hay crops due to excessive rains."

The wheat harvest is about complete in Union County, but was one to two weeks late, and "we had some bad wheat," said Tripp.

Corn acreage will be down in both Illinois and Missouri. The acreage will be the smallest in the last five years in Illinois, where farmers are expected to plant 10.5 million acres of corn.

These figures are down from a year ago and could fall again with the latest spell of rain. The corn acreage is the smallest in the last five years; it is 700,000 acres below 1992.

Corn planting in Missouri is estimated at 2.2 million acres, down 12 percent from the total of a year ago, and the lowest since 1990. Wet conditions during the spring prevented some intended corn acreages in Missouri.

Many Southeast Missouri farmers have crops in the ground, but some low-lying areas are lost for the year.

"We haven't seen some of our land for more than two-and-a-half months," said Martha Vandivort. "It won't be planted this year."

Vandivort has about 400 acres in the Flora Creek bottoms north of Cape Girardeau. "We did manage to plant about 80 acres, but that has been lost, too," she said.

Vandivort said some other property owners were experiencing the same problem in the Flora Creek area.

"There's probably about 2,000 acres under water in that area," she said.

"We probably have about 4,000 to 5,000 acres under water in the county," said Gerald Bryan, agronomist with the Jackson office of University of Missouri Extension Service. "That's just an estimate."

Bryan said many bottom acres were flooded in the Diversion Channel area south of Cape Girardeau and in the Apple Creek area north of Cape Girardeau.

"This could be a bad year for farmers," said Bryan. "They're certainly not being helped by the weather. In addition to flooding, some crops have been hurt by excess moisture. In some fields you can see shoulder-high corn in one row and 6- to 8-inch corn in nearby rows."

Bryan said some crops were suffering from insect damages.

One consolation, said Bryan, is that prices could be better this year.

"If farmers can get a decent yield on crops they do have planted, maybe the decreased acreage will result in increased prices."

To the south, some farmers in Mississippi County are losing crops along the Mississippi bottoms.

"We don't know how many acres have been damaged yet," said a spokesman of the Mississippi County ASCS office. "But we're keeping close tabs on the rising waters."