News

Ag producers struggle with flooded crops

By Scott Wagar

07/08/2014

With over four inches of rain at the end of June, ag producers are seeing difficulties with their planting season and the crops they already have in the ground.

“It is hard to say exactly what the outcome will be for each crop here. A lot depends on how long there is standing water on the field and the type of crop,” said Jared Nelson, NDSU extension agent for Bottineau County.

“Alfalfa will still do fairly well as long as it is well established. The soybeans should fair pretty well as long as the water does not remain on the field for much more than a day. The other crops around the area may see some yield loss mostly from nitrogen leaching, and some from standing water, but once again we have to look at how long the water remains on the field.

“Typically, the biggest issues will be in the lower parts of fields. Some crops have a better tolerance to standing water than others. For instance, alfalfa can go about 10 days before it is suffocated out and begins to die off. Corn and soybeans, when they are early in their growth stages, can begin to suffocate within two to four days,” Nelson added. “Small grain crops that are submerged in water for two days or longer will rarely ever have a chance for survival. Even if the crop does survive the flooded ground there will be other issues as well. Any time a crop has to put up with stress like that for much more than a day there will almost always be some sort of yield loss.”

With the large amount of rain and wet conditions to begin with, local farmers might have concerns with nitrogen leaching and plant disease. When it comes to nitrogen leaching, again, there are different outcomes for local farmers depending upon the type of crop they planted.

“There seems to be a lot of this going on this year in corn, wheat and barley. Anytime nitrogen leaching occurs, the crop is losing the most important nutrients to help promote good growth resulting in a loss of yield,” Nelson said. “For corn, if the nitrogen losses are severe enough growers can reapply up to 100 pounds of nitrogen. As for wheat, most of the wheat is too far along in its growth for an application of nitrogen to make a difference.”

To date, ag producers east of the Mouse River have planted 80 to 90 percent of their crops, while farmers on the west side of the river have been able to plant around 60 percent of their crop in the ground.

Some producers in the county haven’t been able to get any crop seed into the ground. 

Producers have major concerns this year with their crops and their outcomes, but Nelson stated some farmers have bigger concerns other than their crops.

“Some farmers may be approaching the four-year mark to collect payments for the land. The guideline states that a field must have been planted and harvested in one of the most recent four years to qualify for prevented planting payments,” Nelson said.

“If farmers are in the last year of utilizing preventive plant acres, they may want to consider using cover crops to help reduce the moisture content. This may give them a better chance to get into grounds that are typically wetter in the spring and take longer to dry out.

“Cover crops can also provide more benefits then just helping with drainage such as weed control, erosion control, and increase general soil health. The normal goal when using cover crops is for using up soil moisture, and with the wet springs the last two years cover crops may be a good choice to help combat that.”

When it comes to the prevented plant program, it is hard to know what the percentile will be in producers applying for the program considering producers are in the preliminary process of reporting their acres. Some estimation in the county is that around 25 percent of the farming community will apply for prevented planting.

For now, only one thing is certain when it comes to the county’s crops.

“We will definitely need some drier weather throughout the rest of the summer to hopefully have little to no moisture left in the soil going into the winter months,” Nelson said.