By STAN MADDUX

Indiana Correspondent

LA CROSSE, Ind. — One farmer whose 1,200-acre soybean field was covered by as much as 10 feet of floodwater earlier this year is having his best yields ever.

Other grain growers who escaped the late-winter flooding are also enjoying a harvest predicted to set records nationwide. The record yields anticipated for corn and soybeans are forcing states like Indiana to allow outside storage of corn and soybeans in areas where indoor holding capacity is not sufficient.

Jordan Seger, deputy director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA), said traditional storage capacity is down from some of last year’s grain still not being sold due to low prices and trade tariffs. Elevators, feed mills, ethanol producers and other major buyers can apply for a license with ISDA to store grain outside in covered piles if their bins run out of room.

“We just want to give some flexibility to farmers and elevators to be able to store grain,” he said.

Frank Gorski of La Crosse said he’s getting 15 bushels per acre of soybeans more than a typical year on ground under enough water “to float Noah’s Ark” after the Kankakee River in northern Indiana overran its banks during a major late-season thaw.

When the water finally went down several weeks later, Gorski said his soil was very loose, allowing for easy tilling and the roots of his crop to effortlessly anchor firmly into the earth. “Everyone in the area is having an exceptional bean year,” he said.

Gene Matzat, an educator with the extension office in La Porte, doubts if flooding and extra nutrients water from upstream can bring was much of a factor in Gorski’s high soybean yields. He credits ample rains in August, the most critical period for development of the bean inside the pod.

In other parts of the world, such as India, Matzat said flooding along rivers and streams is relied upon to provide soil with new sediment and nutrients for a good harvest. Flooding here, though, is better controlled and farmers with good nutrient management programs don’t require the extra phosphorus that swollen bodies of water can deliver to the soil.

Matzat said receding floodwaters can also wash away the new injection of nutrients, along with some of the nutrients in the ground already before the water started rising. So, any net gain or loss of nutrients mostly likely was minimal, he said.

‘’I would expect anything left behind for the growing crop this year would have been coincidental,’’ he explained.

Requirements for temporary or emergency outside grain storage include having a concrete or asphalt floor to pile the grain, with rigid self-supporting side walls, aeration and acceptable waterproof covering. Seger said the Indiana Grain Buyers and Warehouse Licensing Agency division of ISDA oversees the program, enacted whenever necessary in previous years.

“We are seeing some above-average and even record yields in pockets of the state,” he said.

In Allen County, some of the storage facilities having as much as 25 percent of leftover grain are still not accepting corn and soybeans. The challenge for them is getting rid of it quickly enough at a good enough price to fully meet incoming demand.

To seek an outside storage license, email dschneck@isda.in.gov or fax the application to 317-232-1362. Learn more at www.in.gov/isda/3679.htm or by calling 317-232-1360.