BonnerSprings.com

It's a dilemma for farmers.

Rain is necessary to grow crops, but the heavy rainfall this season is crippling the region's corn, soybean and wheat crops.

Farmers were delayed by about a month in planting corn; some soybean planting hasn't started, and the lack of dry weather means this year's wheat crop is in danger.

Even fescue and alfalfa have suffered.

"If you could get 10 days with no rain whatsoever, you could put a smile on a lot of guys' faces," said Bill Wood, agricultural extension agent with K-State Research and Extension in Douglas County. Many farmers are comparing this spring to 1993, a year that saw flooding cripple crops.

The rain has soaked fields, making it difficult for farmers to run machinery in the mud, and hail has damaged corn and wheat.

Farmers are frustrated.

"Farmers are never happy, of course," said Jim Knetter, who farms 2,000 acres of corn and soybeans in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. "If we could space (the rain) out a little better, that'd be really nice."

"Rain is good, but it needs to be timely," said Lawrence Torneden, who farms west of Bonner Springs, "not all at once like we're getting."

June rainfall up

While rainfall for the year is about average, according to 6News chief meteorologist Jennifer Schack, the Lawrence area reached its average precipitation for June, 5.63 inches, by the eighth day of the month. To date, more than 7 inches of rain has fallen on the area in this month.

The rain has been persistent. From May 21 to June 13, there were 15 days with a trace amount of rainfall; in the first 12 days of June, seven of them saw rain. Add those numbers to a winter that saw more than twice as much snowfall as the last two winters combined - preventing farmers from applying fertilizer - and farmers have a sum for their troubles.

"The potential is there for us to be extremely profitable this year, but someone upstairs said, 'Whoa, boy, let's keep them in check,'" Wood said.

He said corn should be neck-tall by now, but in many cases, it is just knee-high.

"The weather has just put us way behind in our growth stage," he said. Corn needs heat to thrive, he said, "and we've not had that. We've had cool soil, cool temperatures, cloudy days," which stunts the growth of corn.

Knetter said the rain is stunting his corn crop's growth. Right now, he said the wet soil was causing the plants to turn yellow, when it's supposed to be a dark green.

In addition, the corn he planted on his acres near the river is currently submerged in the rising water.

Farmers are experiencing the same consequences from weather as farmers across the Midwest, though flooding and tornadoes in other parts of the region have damaged crops far worse than here.

Soybeans suffering

Because of the delayed corn planting, soybeans are behind.

For Knetter, the rain has slowed the planting process for the entire season. He was able to get all of his corn crop planted, but said the soil has been too wet to finish planting his soybeans.

This has concerned Knetter because the time period for producing a good yield is slowly shrinking. Soybean crops are usually planted in May and June, but Knetter said after July 1, there's going to be some trouble.

"(Soybeans) need a longer growing period than they're going to get this year," he said.

The longer he waits, the more concerned he gets. As the months go on, the days start getting shorter, meaning less sunlight, and Knetter said that soybeans need plenty of sunlight.

The rains also have caused a delay in the soybean plantings by Torneden on his 240 acres west of Bonner Springs near 230th Street. Torneden estimated that after June 15, he'd lose a half to one bushel of yield per acre for soybeans.

"I haven't put any soybeans in the ground yet," he said.

Torneden said he suspected the only farmers who made any headway this spring were the "no-till" farmers who use machines that allow them to plant without doing much preparation to the ground, meaning they got an earlier start.

Come fall, Torneden said there was going to be a definite impact to the food chain for both humans and livestock. He said he doubts there are any farmers who haven't been affected by the large amount of rain, including vegetable growers.

Once the soil starts drying out, Torneden plans to hit the fields and plant his soybeans as fast as possible. His concern is that he won't be able to get them in the ground early enough that the crop won't be hurt should an early frost come in September. He also plans to plant about 30 to 40 percent more soybeans this season to replace the corn that the wet soil has ruined.

"I sure hope we get some sunny days with no rain," he said. "If we get about 10 dry days we'd get to rolling pretty good in the fields."

Knetter and Torneden aren't alone. Wood said some farmers had yet to plant the beans, calling it a wait-and-see situation: Wait until July; see in the fall.

"They'll hope for something, depending on the fall," he said. If an early frost hits, the soybean crop will be ruined.

Wheat woes

Wood said farmers would know more about the wheat crop by early July, but he expected a poor showing for the crop, which is usually harvested in the last weeks of June.

"The wheat has really gone downhill in the last week, just from wet weather," Wood said. Wet weather causes leaf diseases, while waterlogged soil drowns plants.

Many farmers take the added measure of insuring their crops for instances like this, Wood said.

Normally, insurance doesn't cover the entire crop, Wood said. Rather, farmers often look to recoup the costs of preparing for the harvest season.

"That means all their time and effort ends up at $0 per hour for all their work in the winter," he said.

But farmers know that they can't control the weather. They have to adapt.

At this point, Knetter hasn't lost all hope.

"We're at Mother Nature's mercy at this point," he said. "We'll wait for it all to dry and then plant as fast as we can."

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