By STEVE BINDER
Illinois Correspondent CAIRO, Ill. — Ed Sullivan said he’s ready to surrender – while at the same time, calling upon a superstitious good-luck move.
“I’m about ready to raise the white flag in my right hand, and I’ll wave it like crazy, and then I’ll have my fingers crossed in my left hand,” Sullivan said, surveying his water-soaked ground in southern Illinois.
He farms about 2,300 acres each year in Johnson County, one of the areas hardest hit by record-setting rains. The white flag is to the high-wind destruction Mother Nature has unleashed across the Midwest during the past two weeks; the crossed fingers is his wish that wet conditions turn dry, and fast.
Sullivan, like many farmers throughout Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, are still hopeful for dry enough conditions to get corn in the ground before mid-May.
“We’ve still got a little time, thankfully. We had an opportunity to get our corn in during three days in mid-April, but we held off partly because of the new equipment we have. That was a lucky break, because we would have lost a lot had we planted then. Right now, we have until about May 15 to May 20 to get in, so our fingers are crossed,” Sullivan said.
His heart goes out to everyone who has suffered significant losses. He said he was lucky not to have any property damages, save for a handful of trees. Damage across the mid-United States since April 19, particularly in southern Missouri and throughout Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama, has been significant.
Through the end of April, a total of 342 people died as a result of tornadoes and high winds throughout the region on different days, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Damages are estimated to exceed $5 billion.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported 654 tornadoes were recorded last month through April 26, smashing the record set for the entire month in 1974 when 267 tornadoes were reported. One of the storms swept away Chris Greene’s two-year-old, 4,600-square-foot metal farm irrigation shop just north of Carmi in southern Illinois.
“There was probably a five-mile area it cut across that caused all kinds of damage. It was brutal,” Greene said.
At least two dozen grain bins were damaged at the Campbell, Brown, Walsh and Sailor farms throughout northern White County, Ill., and southwestern Indiana.
Weather experts attributed the increase in tornado activity this year in large part to the constant collision of volatile warm and cold fronts across the middle portion of the country. That pattern should change by the middle of this week, according to the National Weather Service’s Paducah, Ky., office.
That could give farmers the corn window they need, or time enough to choose to go with soybeans, which has a more generous planting season (through June) to get into the ground.
John Davis, chair of Ohio’s Corn and Wheat Growers Assoc., said patience is key.
“The optimum planting dates for corn in Ohio is April 20 until May10. If the corn is planted in that time period with good weather, most of the yields will be okay,” he said. “This is not the time to panic. If we get dry and hot weather, we can have the corn in the ground in eight days. Twenty years ago it would’ve taken a month.”
State officials in Indiana and Illinois said that as of late April, just 2 percent and 10 percent of those states’ corn crops had been planted – well below the average of about 15 percent for the same time of year.
“By itself, this is not much cause for concern because typically only a very small percentage of acres are ever planted by this date in Indiana,” said Bob Nielsen, a corn specialist with the Purdue University extension.
“It is true that corn grain yield potential does decline with delayed planting after about May 1. But the planting date only accounts for 11 to 12 percent of the variability in statewide yields from year to year.”
Emerson Nafziger, a University of Illinois extension agronomist, also urged patience. At some point within the next four weeks, farmers still can switch to soybeans and be just as profitable.
“If you have already made crop-specific investments such as applying N fertilizer for corn, this will provide more incentive to stay with corn,” he said. “This is certainly not a decision to rush into at this point.”
For farmers in soil-rich southeastern Missouri, the decision could be out of their hands completely. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was to decide whether to blow huge holes into a levee to relieve pressure off of a Cairo, Ill., flood wall. If done, the move was expected to flood some 130,000 acres of prime farmland in Missouri, and state officials were continuing a legal battle to stop the Corps from blowing the levee.
Considering the death and destruction already inflicted on the heartland, Sullivan counts his blessings.
“We were very fortunate, and we may still get into the ground if the weather holds out. But our prayers are with everyone who suffered through this horrible ordeal,” he said |
