By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — While the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) has estimated the value of crop losses as a result of flooding in Illinois at $1.3 billion, an official with the Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB) said it will take until at least August to gain an accurate measure.

Weather-related damage to crops in all affected states was pegged at more than $8 billion, according to AFBF’s most recent market update, with Iowa accounting for more than half the damage.

“The only thing we have as of (June 27) are the number of acres of cropland impacted by levee breaks,” said John Hawkins, communications director for the IFB.

“Approximately 80,000 acres of corn and soybeans in a six-county area in southeastern Illinois were washed out due to levee failures, and about 50,000 acres were impacted on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River south of the Quad Cities to Quincy.

“We hope to have better knowledge when the USDA issues their (July) acreage report on (June 30).”

Hawkins said field representatives with the Illinois Agricultural Statistics Service (IASS) are busy conducting a special survey of damaged fields across Illinois and will undertake a more thorough study in mid-July for the August USDA crop report.

“We probably will not know the full extent of the damage in terms of total acreage and financial losses until the August crop report,” he said.

As of June 26, 13 levees had been over-topped in the Rock Island District’s area of operation, which includes large portions of Illinois and Iowa and smaller areas of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Missouri.
Mark Lambert, communications director for the Illinois Corn Growers Assoc., wouldn’t “venture a guess” when asked for an estimate of crop losses to the state’s corn producers as a result of flooding.

“Anybody that is giving estimates at this point is going to be wrong. It will be months before we have a good handle on this disaster,” he said.

Terry Francl, AFBF senior economist, said Iowa corn yields are expected to be reduced by 16 percent this year. In addition, 1.5 million-2 million acres of corn and soybeans that Iowa farmers intended to plant will likely “remain fallow.”

The average corn yield for the nation is expected to decline by 8-10 bushels per acre from the 2008 trend line, according to the AFBF, while the soybean yield is expected to decline by one to two bushels per acre.

On June 24, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich joined with the governors of Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin to ask President Bush for a reduction in the amount states and local communities are required to reimburse the federal government for individual assistance, public assistance and mitigation required during the “current disaster emergency.”

The states are asking that the 75/25 federal and state/local shares, respectively, be reduced to 90/10. The old matching level will place an added burden on state and local governments already dealing with the disaster’s effects, the governors said.

Lambert said focusing on the effects of the flood on the corn market detracts from the fact that plenty of corn will be harvested in Illinois this fall.

“The part of the story that everyone is missing is how much good corn we have in Illinois,” Lambert said. “Despite stop-and-start planting and ‘prairie potholes,’ there is a lot of good corn in central and northern Illinois.”