COLUMBIA — April showers bring May flowers, but they sure won’t bring corn and soybeans if it continues to rain as it has this spring.
Although some rain is essential, too much interferes with planting because farmers can’t run heavy equipment over wet ground, and too much moisture is a death sentence for seeds.
“Wet weather’s effect on input costs isn’t as significant as the planting delays it causes,” said Melvin Brees of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute. “Later planting means lowers yields.”
Farmers know all about delays.
In March, rainfall totalled 5.37 inches, 2.16 more than the average rainfall of 3.21 inches, according to the National Weather Service. By April 23, the month’s rainfall totalled 3.34 inches, .23 inches more than April 2007. Average annual rainfall in April is 4.16 inches, according to the National Weather Service.
Because of wet fields, Boone County farmers, such as John Sam Williamson, had to wait to plant crops.
“It’s been too wet to plant, and right now it doesn’t look good for planting corn,” Williamson said. “It’s best to plant corn in early April, but you can plant corn up into early May if you have to. After mid- to late- May, you’ll have to plant short season corn. And if you don’t get your corn planted, you get behind on your soybeans.”
As of late April, Williamson hadn’t planted any of his corn crop and didn’t know of anyone else in the Boone County river bottoms who had. “Some over by Glasgow have planted, but nothing yet around here,” he said. “It’s just too wet. Every time it starts getting dry enough to plant, we get more rain. We just keep getting farther and farther behind.”
Besides getting behind on planting, wet weather causes problems with crop yield, Brees said.
“Delayed planting causes a lower yield because of a shorter growing season and also delays pollination into hotter and dryer seasons,” Brees said. “In hot and dry weather conditions, plants just don’t pollinate as well and could also produce smaller kernels.”
Lower corn yields mean less profit for farmers and could have a hand in a farmer’s choice to switch to planting soybeans instead of corn.
“If farmers can’t get corn planted early enough, they may switch to short season corn if they’ve already fertilized the ground for corn, but otherwise they may switch to soybeans,” Brees said. “This is a concern because of the already anticipated reduction of expected corn plantings reported by USDA’s Prospective Plantings report. Many farmers will shift to soybeans if they can’t get corn planted on time.”
High levels of rain also cause problems after planting.
Brees said there are diseases that attack seeds in wet conditions.
“When there’s too much rain, seeds could rot in the ground or have poor germination," Williamson said. “When you’ve got water standing around, there are also diseases, especially for soybeans, that are caused when it’s too wet. Then you’ve got to buy fungicides.”
When farmers get a chance, they get their seeds in the ground, even though more rain could endanger their crop. It’s a risk they have to take.
“There is a chance when you plant that you could get heavy rain and damage the seeds, but if you have the chance, you should plant early anyway,” Williamson said. “And if the plants come up and they’re pretty thin, you’re better off sticking with what you’ve got than trying to plant again.”
Farmers in the area have dealt with wet weather before. Just last year there was enough rain to cause flooding and close several highways and roads for short periods of time.
The biggest flood in Missouri’s history was in 1993. In 1985, Columbia had the most annual rainfall, with 55.37 inches, according to NOAA’s National Weather Service Weather Forecast office.
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