written by Jonathan Eisenthal
Steve Lindstrom, who farms near the Cannon River in Welch, lost a 94 acre field of corn and soybeans to the heavy rains that hit the state in mid-June. KSTP-TV news showed video of the field looking like a lake, complete with fish swishing and jumping around.
He’s not alone. Many farmers across the state experienced washouts, and others had such persistent rains they never got into the field to plant.
USDA still projects a near-record yield/harvest for corn in Minnesota. The Sept. 11 World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimate suggests that US farmers will harvest 83.8 million of the 91.6 million acres planted to corn and realize an astounding 171.7 bushels per acre national yield average.
Minnesota will harvest a projected 8 million acres of corn, at an average of 170 bushel yield, and put 1.36 billion bushels in the bin, if the forecast comes to fruition.
An early frost that rolled through many of Minnesota’s farm fields last weekend could also knock down projected corn yields.
Revisiting Lindstrom’s experience this spring, Minnesota CORNerstone learned that Mother Nature ‘totaled’ that 94 acre field, which Lindstrom plans to take out of operation altogether.
On June 22 when he spoke with a television reporter, Lindstrom was optimistic that the field could possibly dry down quickly enough to allow him to clear trees that had been carried onto the field, and firm up enough to hold a planter so he could get beans in before July 1. But it was not to be.
“I didn’t do anything with it. I’ll probably never farm it again,” said Lindstrom. “It’s full of sandbars and trees now.”
Lindstrom didn’t file a crop insurance claim on the field, because it wasn’t a high enough percentage of his acres.
“Down there along the river flooding is getting to be an annual event,” Lindstrom said. “Back when I was a kid this was some of the best land we had. Even when it flooded we’d usually get something out of it. But that horse shoe bend in the river just got worse every year.”
He had been planning to enroll 21 acres of the field, which is owned by his father, in a permanent easement through the EQIP program, and plant native plants and grasses that would prevent erosion. However, paperwork delays nixed that idea.
Following an earlier flood disaster, Goodhue County accessed funds through the Federal Emergency Management Agency to build a $1.2 million dollar erosion control project along the nearby river channel. The surging waters in mid-June 2014 carried away most of the riprap and other engineered features that had been placed there.
Lindstrom confessed a sense of frustration with those who point the finger at farmers for sedimentation problems in the Cannon River and on down the Mississippi to Lake Pepin. He takes steps on his farm to protect water quality, but, unfortunately, farmers don’t have the power to stop Mother Nature from sending excessive spring rains that lead to flooding.
“We no-till 60-70 percent of our land, and do one or two conservation projects every year to prevent erosion, but all that doesn’t even matter compared to all the stream bank that falls in at the horse shoe bend in the river every year that we get a flood like this,” said Lindstrom.
The persistent rains across much of the state caused Minnesota to be top in the nation in prevented planting corn acres with 616,671, according to an August 1 FSA report. Iowa followed close behind with 613,257 prevented corn acres. Totaling all the Farm Program crops, 7.711 million acres across the United States were prevented.
Continual spring rains had a similar impact in Minnesota’s northern tier, where the timing caused farmers to miss the planting window for soybeans. Four northern counties had prevented planting of soybeans in excess of 10,000 acres, with the hardest hit being Roseau, where 32,434.85 acres were declared prevented plant.