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Missouri farmer has been battling spring rains

Adam Casner farms in West Central Missouri and says this spring has been challenging from the very beginning.

Early on the ground was saturated – but then things changed.  “We finally got in the field to plant corn and we had honestly gotten pretty dry,” he says.  “The last couple of fields we planted were dry and we could hardly get the planter in the ground.”

And then, he says, things changed again.  “In just a matter of a couple of weeks we’ve done a complete 180 degree turn,” he says.  “We’re at saturation point and we’ve had over 4 inches of rain in the last week and we’re at the point now where everything is just running off on us.”

Because Casner farms in a flat river bottom near the Missouri River – draining excess water is an issue.

He tells Brownfield all of their drainage is what they’ve made.  “We dig drainage ditches through our bottoms to create our fall and at the end of our drainage ditches we have flood gates and pumps,” he says.  “We have two 30” pumps in our part of the bottoms that force the water out whenever we have a high river.”

Casner says in a year like this – they’re not just battling the rain they receive – but the rain that has fallen up-river in cities like Kansas City and Omaha.  “Kansas City had 4” to 6” of rain over night and the river went from 21 feet to 25.5 feet in a two day period,” he says.

Right now, he says a lot of their corn crop is standing in water causing oxygen to be cut off from the roots which is detrimental to the crop.