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Heavy rainfall floods MO farmer’s fields

President of the Missouri Corn Growers Association Jay Fischer says recent extreme rain events have farmers questioning what to do next. Fischer, who farms along the Missouri River, says about a quarter of his fields are under water after receiving 11 inches of rain over the weekend. 

“Moral’s pretty low right now,” he said. “When it’s July the first and you’re trying to decide ‘well what do we do’, are we going to replant beans, are we just not going to raise a crop on these drowned out acres. And the river’s still at 27 feet, I mean we’re just two big rain events away from being at the top of our levees. It’s emotionally challenging, it really is.”

Fischer says levees near him can hold up to 31 feet.

He says with strong grain prices, it might still be worthwhile to replant soybean acres.   

“If we could just get that water off and that ground to dry out, if we could get some beans planted by the 20^th of July, we’d still try that,” Fischer said. “But I’m afraid it’s over with for some of the corn.”

Fischer speculates replanted soybeans might make 25 bushels an acre without additional setbacks.