Farmers with crops in low-lying areas along the Wabash River are facing a difficult situation as rising water threatens thousands of acres just weeks before harvest.
Wabash Valley Service Company’s Mike Wilson discussed the impact of the flooding during Wednesday’s Valley Update on WSJD.
Wilson said an August rise on the Wabash River is unusual and comes at an especially difficult time because many soybean fields are approaching maturity.
Some farmers are now attempting to defoliate soybeans in river bottoms in hopes of harvesting them before floodwaters arrive. Wilson said products are being applied by both drones and ground equipment, but supplies are limited and the window for getting the crop out is extremely narrow.
One White County farmer, Wilson said, has about 400 acres of soybeans in bottom ground, but enough defoliant could only be found to treat about half of those acres.
Wilson said soybeans that go underwater before reaching maturity may never fully mature. Beans that are already mature can sometimes still be harvested after floodwaters recede, although quality can suffer from splitting and mud.
The situation is particularly frustrating because Wilson believes the local crop had been shaping up to be one of the strongest in the Midwest.
“In all my travels across the Midwest in the last two weeks, we’ve got the best-looking crop right here,” Wilson said.
But with the Wabash expected to rise close to 22 feet at Mount Carmel, Wilson said a significant amount of farmland on both sides of the river could be affected.
Additional rain chances over the next several days could also complicate efforts to harvest fields ahead of the water.
Outside the river bottoms, Wilson expects harvest activity in Wabash County to begin picking up after Labor Day. He said some corn has already been harvested in White and Gallatin counties, while early-planted soybeans are also being cut.
Overall, Wilson expects harvest south of Highway 50 to run roughly two weeks ahead of a normal schedule, while areas farther north could trail southern Illinois by another ten days to two weeks.