Farmers receive more rain than needed

    Washington County has received a deluge of rain in the last week. Iowa State University Crop Specialist Jim Fawcett said that Washington County has received 21 inches of rain since April 1, which is 11 inches above normal. He said that more than 5 ½ of those inches came just last week.

    Fawcett said that excess rain has given headaches to area farmers. He said the rains have saturated the soil and stunted the growth of the crops, remarking that, ?roots need oxygen to live.?

    ?The fields are really weedy because it has been hard for farmers to get into their fields,? said Fawcett.  

    Local farmers had a great planting season in April, said Fawcett. However, a cold and rainy month of May caused young corn to contract diseases and die. Fawcett said farmers do not need to worry about diseases as much now because temperatures are so high. 

    Jim Jensen, a farm management specialist from Iowa State University, said that warm weather is better when it occurs early in the planting season. However, he said that the warm weather over the past month has evaporated much of the nitrogen fertilizer that farmers applied in the spring. He said that cooler temperatures are preferable during pollination, which will begin in early to mid-July.

    ?We just don?t want to have many days over 90 degrees,? said Jensen.

    Jensen remarked that if this heat wave continues over the summer, and the rain clouds suddenly disappear, it could spell trouble for the crops. Jensen explained that under normal conditions, corn roots grow down into the ground about three or four feet to soak up the water stored in the soil at that depth. However, there are abnormal conditions this year because the corn has received much more rain than usual.

    This year, the corn plants have likely developed shallow roots because they have been able to soak up rain water from the surface with surprising regularity. If there is no rain for an extended period of time, the roots will literally be ?out to dry? because they will not be deep enough to absorb the water farther down into the soil, said Jensen.  

    Fawcett said that the ideal conditions for the rest of the summer would be an average of one inch of rain per week.

    ?You don?t want to go three weeks without any rain because then you?ll be in trouble,? said Fawcett.

    Jensen said that southeast Iowa farmers should keep their chin up because there is still a long ways to go before the harvest, and the weather may yet cooperate. He said rain will be less detrimental later in the year.

    ?We prefer to have the rain spread out over July and August, too,? said Jensen.

For more, see our June 23 print edition.