Now that Lyon County’s fifth round of flooding since late April has dried out, ag producers are taking stock of their current situation and looking ahead.
Brian Schaefer has a farm four miles east of Emporia and property south of town along Highway 99. He says operations have actually been behind schedule since wintry weather developed at times in November. Most of his corn went in the ground in April and was replanted in May and June after flooding. Schaefer tells KVOE News some of his farmland was underwater 21 of the 31 days in May, and that devastated his crop.
Joel Hanson has several operations, including one a few miles west of Emporia. Four hundred acres of corn along the Cottonwood River flooded out and he has been able to get some beans in, but not to the level of past years.
Hanson says the constant flooding impacted his crops in several ways, especially in May.
Schaefer anticipates low profits coming this fall.
On top of that, many fields across several states won’t be planted because of the wet weather while a lot of grain bins are storing grain from last year that’s either spoiling or is spoiled.
At this point in time, Schaefer is also concerned about an early frost — which would wipe out the current crop altogether.
