A historically delayed planting season is causing an amount of stress and angst in farm country that 'cannot be overstated.'
By Katie Mettler Katie Mettler Reporter covering breaking news and features Email Bio Follow May 30 at 10:52 AM In Kendell Culp’s corner of northwest Indiana, the relentless rain began falling on his farm months ago, saturating the ground his family has nurtured for generations and delaying the kickoff of their planting season by more than a week.
For the past five years, the 18 states that produce the majority of America’s corn crop had an average of 90 percent of their fields planted by the end of May, according to data released Tuesday by the Agriculture Department. At the same point this year, 58 percent of the corn crop is in the ground. The outlook for soybeans is just as dismal, with 29 percent in the ground compared with 66 percent in years past.
Of the 6,000 flood gauges that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maintains on waterways across the country, 381 were above flood stage this week across the Central Plains and in the upper Midwest, said Storm Prediction Center chief forecaster Bill Bunting. Much of the most-severe flooding is concentrated in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, northwest Iowa, southeastern South Dakota and Oklahoma — where on Tuesday the governor declared all 77 counties under a state of emergency.
“The story of the natural disasters and the flooding that’s been going on in the Midwest sits within a multiyear slump in farm prices,” said Alicia Harvie, the advocacy and farmer services director for Farm Aid. “It’s another wave of an ongoing crisis. It is a perfect storm. It cannot be overstated the amount of stress and angst in farm country right now.”
Other opportunities for support are caught up in congressional gridlock. The Senate voted last week to approve a multibillion-dollar aid package for communities across the country who have been hit by natural disasters, including those impacted by hurricanes in Puerto Rico and the South, wildfires on the West Coast and the flooding that continues to inundate those in the Midwest.
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