Flooded Fields, Missed Chances: The Cost of Untimely Rain

This Week In Ag #118

Baseball gurus know that how many hits you get isn’t as important as when you get them. Sure, hits any time count toward your batting average, but hits with runners on base score runs and win games. Same can be said for farmers and rain. Corn growers pray for rain during tasseling; soybean growers need it during pod fill; cotton growers must have it at pinhead square.

In the month of May, the Delta was deluged. We got over 9” at my farm in Memphis, where the average May rainfall is 5”. This has created a peck of trouble for farmers. In addition to forcing many to re-plant flooded acreage, persistent rains have prevented farmers from entering the field to sidedress nitrogen or make foliar applications of nutrients and herbicides. You have to wonder if the nitrogen you did apply at the start of the season is still where it needs to be.

These troubles are not exclusive to the Delta. Driving through southern Illinois yesterday I couldn’t believe how many fields were still untouched or were being replanted. On a personal note, I was unable to get my soybeans planted and I’ve already missed two planned foliar corn applications. Ironically, a practice I use to get water to the crop is helping save the crop from drowning. Furrow irrigation is a popular practice in the Mid-South. It involves forming hips, or ridges, to plant seeds on top of. This elevates the emerged crop and builds pronounced furrows between the rows. These furrows not only serve as a system to bring water to the crop’s roots when needed, but channel excessive rainfall to help prevent puddling in the field. Unfortunately, it’s not like you can really save all this excessive rain for later in the summer, certainly not for the highly permeable soil found in the Delta. Those who farm the fertile fields of the “I states” can save it to some degree, due to improved subsoil moisture. Adding insult to injury is that early rains don’t ensure summer rains, when it counts most. Like they say in the Delta, we’re always five days away from a drought.

Despite all the curveballs thrown at it, my corn looks pretty good. It has grown rapidly; reaching V5 stage in just 23 days. With the upcoming forecast for sunny skies and temperature in the upper 80s, you won’t recognize it a week from now.