Soggy planting season slows farmers’ efforts

Wet weather this spring has left farmers drowning in frustration over their inability to plant crops.

During planting season it’s unusual to find a farmer indoors, but Butler County farmer Larry Duncan was near his home phone Thursday afternoon. Wet ground makes it easier to interview farmers. Duncan’s normal working hours during planting season begin at daylight and end about 9 p.m.

Duncan’s family farms 2,000 acres in Butler County and they are too wet for him to be tilling the soil.

“Gosh, this year’s planting is the latest by almost a month,” Duncan said.

Normally, Duncan would have planted all his rice by now, instead of just 150 acres of the 500 acres dedicated to the grain.

Gordonville-area farmer Jeff Lorberg agrees with Duncan.

“Essentially, it is a whole month behind schedule,” he said of planting a crop, Lorberg has only been able to plant 37 acres of corn. He plans to plant another 250 acres of corn once he can get back in the fields.

Cape Girardeau-area farmer Jerry Siemers said, “We haven’t planted anything at all.”

The clay soil has been too wet for planting corn and soybeans.

Siemers said the soggy ground also has made it impossible to harvest alfalfa and cover crops for silage. Dating back to October, this area has seen a lot of rain, Seimers said.

Even three sunny days likely isn’t enough to dry out the fields, he said.

Lorberg said, in addition to corn, he intends to plant another 650 acres in soybeans, a crop that can be planted as late as June.

Once the weather cooperates, both Lorberg and Siemers expect to spend long days planting crops to make up for the weather delays.

“We will have to hustle to keep things going,” Lorberg said.

Duncan concurs with Lorberg and said the USA Farm Service Agency projected area farmers have only 30% of their crops planted.

Duncan said, “It has been pretty wet and we got another three and a half inches of rain from Saturday to yesterday.”

Duncan said he has to the end of June to plant soybeans, but every day he’s late the yield drops because the length of the growing season is shorter.

“If it dries up in the next three to four days, we’ll go ahead and plant beans,” he said.

Travis Jones is a field specialist in agronomy with the University of Missouri Extension in Bloomfield, who works with farmers in Stoddard, Butler, Wayne and Scott counties.

Jones agrees, the wet weather is delaying area farmers in planting corn, soybeans and rice. As of May 19, 69% of area farmers had their rice planted compared to five years ago when they had 89% planted. They are 20% behind, officials say.

“There is nothing they can do but wait for dry weather or they may switch to soybeans taking a prevented planting payment,” Jones said.

Prevented planting must be due to an insured cause of loss that is general in the surrounding area and that prevents other producers from planting acreage with similar characteristics.

Anthony Ohmes, field specialist in agronomy for the University of Missouri Extension in Jackson, said a third or less of the corn has been planted in Cape Girardeau County.

But Lorberg and Siemers estimated the percentage is far lower.

In the Southeast Missouri region as a whole, Ohmes said less than 50% of the corn crop has been planted.

Corn in this region typically is planted from April through the first week of May, according to Ohmes.

While flooding along the Mississippi River and its tributaries swamped some fields, rain has been a more widespread issue for area farmers, he said.

“We have been stuck in a rainfall pattern more than anything else,” the Extension specialist said.

Ohmes said Mississippi County, from January through April, experienced the seventh-wettest season in its history and the wettest since 2011.

From January through April, the Missouri Bootheel experienced more than 25 inches of rainfall in places, according to the University of Missouri Climate Center.

“We have been stuck in a rainfall pattern,” Ohmes said.

Farmers, he said, can expect lower yields for corn unless they can plant soon.

Yields on corn planted later than mid-May typically run 30% less than normal yields in this area, Ohmes said.

Even then, a lot depends on the summer weather, he said.

“There are a lot of ifs,” he said.

Ohmes said dry weather right now could make a big difference in getting a crop in the ground.

“If this week turns out completely dry, a lot of corn can be planted in just a few days,” he said.

The Missouri Farm Bureau reported, “Missouri farmers received a rare bit of good news today, as the Trump Administration announced a market facilitation program that will replace at least some of the income lost to continuing trade disputes. The program, following a spring of historic flooding, delayed planting and depressed prices, will give many farmers the opportunity to farm another year. Although every farmer would rather receive income through a well-functioning market than through government subsidies, the payment will make a positive difference for Missouri agriculture.

There is some concern that due to the design of the program, farmers will be encouraged to plant more soybeans at a time when the soybean market is suffering from large carryovers. The USDA explicitly promised the program will guard against distorting markets.