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Summer rains leave area farmers with a mess
Callahan, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service
Sam Hagest, of Valley View Farms in Borden, said he hoped to plant 300 to 400 more acres of corn and soybeans in addition to the 900 he managed to plant at the 1,300-acre farm, but the wet weather made that too risky.
“It costs so much now to plant crops, you have to be pretty much aware of what you are going to get back before you invest a lot in fertilizer and seed and things like that,” he said.
Hoosier farmers got an extension to file preventative planted acreage reports because of the rain. The deadline is now Aug. 14 for reports on corn and soybeans, though claims for insurance had to be done by Wednesday.
Prevented planting occurs when weather keeps farmers from planting crops they expected to have for the season.
‘True disaster conditions’
The consistent rain the last two months left many area farmers behind their colleagues in the northern part of the state, according to the local Farm Services Agency office.
“Most crops [farther north] are a little late, but in pretty good shape, whereas down here, we’re late and we’re not planted. The southern third, the southern half of the state is definitely worse off than the northern part,” said Bob Backus, Clark County FSA’s executive director.
As the calendar crept toward July, farmers were left with a meager menu of options for their ruined corn crops. Some switched to soybeans, and a shorter-season corn could have been planted, but many fields were left bare.
“We still have some [reports] coming in, so it’s subject to change, but it looks like we’re siting on a couple thousand acres here that is going to end up prevented planted in the county,” Backus said. “Most years, we don’t have any, of course.
“It has to be true disaster conditions, otherwise we wouldn’t be approving it.”
A lifelong farmer, Hagest, 59, said this is the wettest season he remembers. During a drought, he said his wetland farm can still thrive, but extra water is devastating.
“I’ve farmed here my entire life, as a little kid through now, and I don’t remember the wet weather [ever] persisting this long,” he said.
Among the three counties his office serves, Floyd has probably been the hardest hit, said Steve Banks, the Harrison County FSA executive director, whose office also covers Crawford County.
He said a problem for many farmers in the northern part of the county is that they lost out on the first cut of hay for livestock because of the rain.
“These thunderstorms have been kind of spotty; there are some areas that have had significant problems,” Banks said.
“Here in Harrison County, there are some areas that have got excellent crops ... [but] over toward the Floyd County line, there is some wet ground up there where crops are planted late and what was planted either was drowned out or stunted because of being so wet.”
It doesn’t take much moisture to delay planting.
“It’s kind of hard to plant crops when you can’t mow your yard [because of the rain],” he said.
Strapped income
Though the a majority of farmers, especially those with large operations have crop insurance — a requirement to qualify for federal aid — it’s not replacement for the money the harvest brings in.
While the Wileys use renters for some of the crops, it’s the family business for the couple and their 13-year-old daughter, Carrie.
When the Wileys decided to replant 130 washed-out acres earlier in the season, insurance only covered a tenth of the almost $8,000 price tag of the new seed alone.
“You’re not going to make a living off the insurance. If we don’t get it planted, it hurts at the end of the year because that’s where a bulk of our income comes from,” Jeannine Wiley said.
Like many Americans, she said her family has cut back on spending because of having less money. Besides farming, Ed Wiley supplements the family’s income as a truck driver during the winter.
The Wileys replanting turned out to be a bad investment. Despite predicted dry weather for the 24 hours needed for the seed to settle, a heavy downpour came just as the family was finishing.
Like Hagest, Ed Wiley, 54, called this summer the worst planting season since he’s been farming, a career that dates back to his high school years.
He said he’ll lose “a lot,” of income, even if the rest of the season goes smoothly.
Of his corn, he said he is only proud of 47 acres of it. The rest he said he avoids looking at when he drives down the road.
Like many other area farmers, more hours haven’t led to better prospects.
“It seemed like everything we tried to do to make it better made it worse,” he said.
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