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It’s not an everyday sight in southeast Minnesota’s farm country, but 42-year-old mechanic and Amish-influenced hobby farmer Curt Paulson said a wet spring followed by early June flooding called for extraordinary measures.
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Hobby Farmer Curt Paulson, 42, of Rushford, Minn., uses Belgian horses to plant corn Tuesday between rows of existing corn on his two acres of rented land near Rushford. Old-fashioned planting allowed Paulson to access his flood-damaged field along Highway 16 sooner than by tractor.
(Photo by Melissa Carlo/Winona Daily News)
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“With horses I’m able to go into the wet spots better,” he said, as the planter dropped a new row of corn seed between fledgling rows of corn. “I’m trying something different.”
Dried mud-caked Paulson’s rented 2-acre corn field, which had been under water until mid-June.
All along the nearby Root River there was a hodgepodge of damage — the flourishing green of a neighboring soybean field stood out against Paulson’s corn, and other adjacent plots still had large patches of water.
Agriculture officials from Houston and Fillmore counties say recent sunny weather brightened their outlook on this year’s farm season, after a wet early spring that had some farmers worrying they’d lose their crop to floods and soggy fields.
Experts now expect about 75 percent of flood-affected acres will rebound. Some affected farmers have also replanted.
“There’s a lot of waiting going on, and you wait to see what the speculators will do with commodities,” said Jerry Tesmer, a University of Minnesota Extension Service educator for Fillmore and Houston counties.
“I just drove up the Root River today by Rushford and Houston and saw a little bit of everything. In some places, they replanted. There are some places where they left it because it’s OK.
“Some places where they left it because they can’t get to it and some places still have water. But the situation has improved a lot from a couple weeks ago.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agriculture Statistics Service predicts crop production will be down just 2 percent, according to a corn and soybean acreage report released Monday.
Overall, the report — an early June data set that re-interviewed 1,150 farmers in flood-affected areas — found that U.S. farmers planted 87.3 million acres of corn in 2008, down 7 percent from last year. Growers expect to raise 78.9 million acres of grain, down 9 percent from 2007 but still the second largest area planted since 1994, according to the report.
Tammy Martin, director of Fillmore County Farm Service Agency, said about 12,000 acres of the county’s crops were affected by flooding, but only about 25 percent of those crops will fail and farmers will be unable to replant. It’s too late to get a good yield from corn, but it’s still possible for farmers to replant affected corn fields with soybeans, she said.
“May 31st is the final planting date for corn crop insurances and the level of guarantee drops after that,” Martin said. “Soybean planting should generally be done by June 20.”
Crops can rebound even if submerged in water, but that depends on the water’s temperature, said Kevin Elton, director of Houston County FSA. Corn can last up to four days in water less than 77 degrees and soybeans can tolerate 48 hours, he said.
Farmers might see some lower yields come harvest time, Elton said. The area’s yields run about 166 bushels per corn acre and about 47 bushes per soybean acre.
Paulson knows his late corn planting is a gamble, but he’s willing to toss the dice. It would only mean he’d have less corn to handpick come autumn and more time away from under a car.
“It’s good therapy,” Paulson said while riding the planter. “All you can hear is the click-click-click, and nobody’s telling you to get the trash out or their car can’t start.”
Contact Amber Dulek at 507-453-3513 or amber.dulek@lee.net.
