Disaster relief sought for area farmers

Yields down

as much as

75 percent

"Scarecrow on a wooden cross, blackbird in the barn.

Four hundred empty acres that used to be my farm.

I grew up like my daddy did. My grandpa cleared the land.

When I was five, I walked the fence while grandpa held my hand."

"Rain On The Scarecrow" by John Mellencamp and George Green

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- It's so dry this summer, southern Minnesota farmers could use some help like the Farm Aid concerts performed by Willie Nelson and John Cougar Mellencamp 15 years ago.

Two months of drought and soybean aphid infestation has prompted agricultural officials to begin the process of requesting federal relief for corn and soybean growers throughout much of southern Minnesota. Some parts of southern Iowa and northern Missouri are experiencing a more severe drought than is southern Minnesota.

Before July 1, growers were expecting another good growing season that would have been the 11th such event in a row. Then the water spigot stopped running and the bugs came.

It's too late for help from the rain for this year's crop. The result is a poor farm economy in an already bad economy. Near-term rain would help the next growing season.

Farmers with carryover stocks from previous years should get a small price advantage this year.

Experts are calling the drought the worst in this part of the country since 1988. On top of that, corn and soybean prices are tempered by better crops in Iowa, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, according to agriculture officials.

Recent hand checks done by area farmers revealed 20-75 percent yield reductions, according to Regional Extension Educator Wayne Schoper in Sleepy Eye.

"We're looking at significant yield reductions, although 75 percent being a bit extreme," Schoper said. "It'll be a tough year financially. We're a good 10 days late for rescue rains for the soybeans. The corn has stopped growing."

Schoper predicted the best Brown County corn to yield 120-135 bushels per acre. Soybeans were a little better formed than corn, he added.

Extension Educator Gary Hachfeld in St. Peter said Nicollet County soybean yields should be 35-38 bushels per acre, about 10 bushels less than last year. Corn looks like about 135 bushels, he predicted.

Wayne Hansen, Extension Educator in Redwood Falls said yields will be at least 20 percent less than last year. He questioned how valuable low-interest federal loans would be since normal interest rates are already quite low.

"It depends on how much damage the aphids did," Hansen said. "Hilltops and some other spots are also worse."

Extension educator Tim Dolan in Sibley County painted a little bit better picture. Some Sibley County fields got the advantage of up to .75 of an inch of rain during the summer drought, but even that amount was spotty.

Compared to last year's crop, this year's yield average will probably be closer to the 10-year yield average, according to Dolan. Good marketing could aid farmers, he added.

We'll have lower test weights and lighter corn in lighter soil," Dolan said. "Some western Minnesota are worse off than we are with barely any kernels on corn cobs. Our corn may not be filled out to the end of the cob, but now matter how bad our corn is, there are places where it is worse."