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Farmer assesses land and roads, post flood
After months of Missouri River flood waters over his farm and home, Northwest Missouri farmer Richard Oswald is back on his land.
Oswald tells Brownfield he’s focused on getting his fields ready for planting next spring. “We have to,” says Oswald, “You know, that’s something we absolutely must do is get that land planted in order to be able to at least have crop insurance coverage. Otherwise, prevented planting is about the best we’re going to get out of that.” Although, Oswald tells Brownfield the DeBruce Grain Elevator is still not accessible from the Nebraska side of the river.
The levees are not repaired yet either and Oswald says that’s a big concern for next year. He says the soil appears to be in better shape than anticipated, though, “I guess if you’d say there’s a blessing, why, maybe that’s what that is. But, the flood lasted long enough that most of the debris just kept on going south. I don’t know who got it or where it is but we don’t have as much of that as we had in ’93.”
While his farm in Langdon, Missouri has nothing to harvest, there’s some activity going on in areas further away. “For the most part, things are starting to get back to normal. Debruce Grain has a large elevator that they just put into operation this spring. They’ve reopened and they’re taking corn,” says Oswald.
Meanwhile, road repair is a huge priority. Oswald is on the board of the Langdon Special Road District and says the damage to roads is “terrible”… He says FEMA has been in the area working with them on those road issues as well as homeowner issues.
“FEMA’s going to buy the homes that are damaged 50% or more and they may even buy the land that those homes sit on, so, I thought that was interesting.” Oswald says the Missouri River carved out huge gorges along its path, creating unintended farm ponds in many areas.
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