Flood waters covercorncrop along the Missouri River

By Doug Rich

The tornado that ripped through Greensburg, Kan. on May 4 has been getting all of the headlines and rightly so. But heavy rains across the Midwest have created flooding problems for many producers, also.

The storm that spawned the Greensburg tornado also brought heavy rainfall that finally pushed many streams and rivers out of their banks. The northwest area of Missouri took the brunt of the damage from the flood. From St. Joseph, Mo., to Kansas City, and east to Booneville the Missouri River overflowed its banks, broke levees, and flooded many fields in the area.

"We are pretty soggy in some places," said B.J. Bailey, a farmer from Oregon, Mo. Bailey, a director with the MissouricornGrowers Association (MCGA), said nearly 400 acres of his farm was under water. About half of this acreage was planted tocornand half was waiting to be planted to soybeans.

The flood water was starting to recede but Bailey said some of the water got in behind a levee and that is a problem.

"We will either have to bust some levees to let it out or let it go down real slow through the drainage tubes," Bailey said. "I imagine a lot of people are cutting levees to let the water out quicker."

Part of the water on his farm came from a levee break near Big Lake and the rest of the flooding occurred when he had to shut the flood gates on internal drainage and the creeks started to back up.

Bailey estimates that in Holt County, Mo., 52,500 acres ofcornwere underwater and 31,250 acres that were not planted yet were underwater. Ninety-eight percent of the planted acres are a total loss.

Wayne Crook, University of Missouri Extension agronomy specialist in Chariton County, estimated they had 50,000 acres underwater along the Missouri River and 15,000 flooded along the Chariton River.

"The wheat is a total loss, but thecornmay be replanted because of the fertilizer and chemical they have already applied," Crook said. "We had not really planted anySoybeansyet."

Because of the levee breaks in western portions of the Missouri River, Crook did not expect to see much flooding east of Chariton County.

Farmers wanting to replantcornon these flooded acres will need to determine how much fertilizer leached out during the floods.

"If water sits on the field for a couple of days you have lost all of your fertilizer," Bailey said.

Southeast Kansas also experienced significant flooding.

"We had quite a bit of low land flooding along steams and the Neosho River," Gary Kilgore, K-State Extension specialist, said. "The interesting thing is we had a lot ofcornplanted on the river bottom and the freeze on April 7 and 8 took it out, but it has been wet enough since it was replanted. I guess that is a blessing in disguise."

"We had some wheat in those areas that is devastated now," Kilgore said. "If they were wanting to zero it out now they have that option."

According to Kilgore, everything east of Flint Hills and south of the Kansas River has significant water logging problems. Even wheat fields on upland acres are dead in spots and there are severe problems with the alfalfa crop in eastern Kansas.

"It is major," Kilgore said. "Some of the old stands are probably dead."

Alfalfa fields in southeast Kansas do not normally last much longer than 5 or 6 years. This year the 4 and 5 year old stands are turning brown.

"Water logging is prevalent anywhere we have poorly drained soils," Kilgore said. "We have been extremely wet for a full month."

Uplandcornacres have suffered from water logged fields, also. There are large yellow areas in the fields where thecornis stunted and the root system is drastically hurt.

"Denitrification is a common problem here in our soils upland or bottom land," Kilgore said.

Steve Butzen, agronomy information manager with Pioneer, said weather conditions following flooding are important to plant survival. Cool, wet conditions favor disease development. While very hot, windy conditions may dry soils too quickly causing crusting and restricted plant growth.

Butzen said when the growing point ofcornis at or below the soil surface it can survive only two to four days of totally saturated soil conditions.

Producers who farm along flood prone rivers and streams know high water is just part of the risk they face.

"It is the same old, same old again," Bailey said.

Doug Rich can be reached by phone at 785-749-5304 or by e-mail at richhpj@aol.com.

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5/21/07

Date: 5/15/07

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