A significant rain could help stabilize the area corn crop while also helping with the growth of soybeans, but that moisture needs to come pretty quick.
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So says Phil Hoffman of Hoffman and Reed, who noted that area farmers could still have a strong soybean crop if a good rain was received. He pointed to 1980, when it was not until early in August before the area received significant moisture and farmers were able to have a fairly good corn crop while bean yields were significant.
Rain in the area has been spotty during the past few weeks and Hoffman noted there are some parts of the area “that look better than others” due to the extra moisture received. He said the difference can be seen mostly in the soybean crop
Tyler Mason of Trenton MFA was not as optimistic about the corn crop, noting that while a rain might help with kernel size, most corn is “pretty much done for.”
As for soybeans, Mason indicated good rain is needed soon or that crop could be gone as well. He said that soybeans planted in May benefitted from some rain received earlier in the summer and “look strong” while beans planted in June “look a little rough” due to the lack of rain.
“If we don’t get some moisture by Aug. 10, we can throw in the towel on the beans, too,” Mason said.
Hoffman noted that some farmers are already beginning to cut corn for silage and hay CRP land to provide feed for cattle, which he said is not a particularly good thing this early in the year.
“You start feeding in July and August and there might not be enough feed for winter,” he said.
But the chances of rain anytime soon appear bleak, with the National Weather Service predicting seven to 10 days of 100-degree temperatures, including several expected to reach at least 105 degrees.
The Associated Press reports that a lack of moisture is causing big problems for farmers and others who rely heavily on water for their livelihoods. Officials, however, said even an average amount of rainfall over the past few months would have made the heat difficult to bear.
“It’s so dry, there’s really not a lot of moisture left from the intense dryness of the last three or four months,” said Chris Bowman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Pleasant Hill. “If we had gotten the rain we normally would get, we’d probably have dew points in the lower 70s. That would make it harder to heat up to the levels we’re seeing now, but when you combine any kind of heat with high dew points, it gets uncomfortable really quick.”
Gov. Jay Nixon on Tuesday said the U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved a request to designate all 114 Missouri counties as disaster areas. The designation allows eligible farmers to be considered for assistance from the federal Farm Service Agency, including receiving emergency loans.
Nixon asked for the federal assistance last week. Heat, dry weather and a lack of snow last fall and winter have contributed to the difficult conditions for Missouri farmers and ranchers.
State Treasurer Clint Zweifel also announced that he is offering emergency 24-hour approvals of low-interest loans through the Missouri Linked Deposit Program because of the drought conditions.
Under the program, the state deposits money at low rates in banks, which in turn can supply low-interest loans to farmers or businesses. Zweifel says it normally takes about 10 days to approve a deposit for a loan, but that can be speeded up in emergencies.
Drought conditions have hit especially hard in the far southeast corner of the state, the Missouri Bootheel region, which the U.S. Drought Monitor shows to be in extreme drought.
Farmers are getting hammered, and eventually consumers will be feeling the pain, too, said John Schoen, a Cape Girardeau County dairy farmer with 500 cows on 800 acres that have been in the family since the mid-1800s.
“This is a very serious situation all the way through to the consumer,” Schoen, 57, said. “I’ve only experienced probably three droughts in my lifetime and this is probably the worst.”
Schoen said many of his cows drink from ponds and creeks on his land, and those waters are drying up.
“Streams in this part of the country are about 50 percent of what they should be,” he said. “Ponds are probably at 30 percent of capacity.”
He said feed costs are skyrocketing because of the drought, up by about 30 to 35 percent over the past four weeks. That will translate into higher beef costs in three to six months, Schoen said, and dairy prices will go up, too, but not as quickly.
“I would say as far as the bottom line, it’s going to go from what was a profitable year to one of survival mode,” Schoen said.
Nixon, who was touring several farms Tuesday, said drought conditions also were posing a fire risk across the state.
“The long-range forecast means not only will our fire responders need to continue their vigilance, Missouri farmers also must be ready for the long haul with this weather, even as we head into harvest season,” Nixon said.
The National Agriculture Statistics Service reports topsoil moisture is short in almost all parts of the state, and creeks and streams are running dry. Missouri’s corn crop has declined significantly in recent days and more than 90 percent of livestock pastures are in poor condition.
The National Weather Service said that through Monday, the temperature has hit at least 90 degrees for 20 straight days in St. Louis and for 24 straight days in Columbia. That is tied for the sixth-longest stretch in St. Louis, equaling marks set in 2007, 1921 and 1901. The string of 90-plus-degree days is the fifth-longest for Columbia.
Kansas City is in the midst of its driest July on record and is on pace to have its highest temperatures, Bowman said. The period from April 1 to July 15 is the second-driest ever for the city, he said.
The deaths of 17 St. Louis residents since June 28 have been blamed on the heat, while two St. Louis County deaths are also classified as heat-related.
Many of those who have died either didn’t have a working air conditioner, or weren’t using it, St. Louis health officials said. The city has also asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to come up with a better nationwide heat death reporting system so that jurisdictions can better learn from each other about what leads to death in an era when air conditioning, either in home or at cooling centers, is readily available.
Jeff Hershberger, a spokesman for the Kansas City Health Department, said the city has one confirmed heat death and six that are being investigated as possibly heat-related. That’s about where the city was at this point a year ago, he said, when there were 21 heat deaths before summer’s end.
“With it being dry like this, the heat index is pretty close to the actual temperature,” he said. “That’s a really good thing. When it’s humid, it always feels a lot hotter and it’s harder for a body to cool down. The fact that it’s more dry is making the heat more tolerable for us.”