Drought eases in many places; fields turn to mud

Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa

As spring rains soaked the central United States and helped conquer the historic drought, a new problem has sprouted: The fields have turned to mud.

The weekly drought monitor report, released Thursday by National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb., showed the heavy rains that also caused some flooding in the last week brought drought relief to the upper Midwest, western Corn Belt and parts of the Plains.

Farmers may be thankful the land is no longer parched, but it’s too wet to plant in corn country, and freezing temperatures and snow have ruined the winter wheat crop.

“Right now, we’re wishing it would dry up so we can get in the field,” said 74-year-old Iowa farmer Jerry Main, who plants corn and soybeans on about 500 acres in the southeast part of the state. He’s measured more than 9 inches of rain since April 18 — and farmers in his area prefer to plant corn by May 10, at the latest.

Aside from being too wet to plant, it’s been too cold for seed to germinate. Main said temperatures dipped to 27 on Tuesday and to 32 on Wednesday, a chill that’s been widespread across the Midwest.

“We need some heat, it’s been down in the upper 30s at night,” said Darren Walter, 41, who farms near Grand Ridge, Ill. And farmers in southwest Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas have lost a significant portion of their wheat crop because of unusually late freezes, and have begun knocking it down to feed it to livestock.

But just as better crop technology helped U.S. farmers harvest one of their biggest corn crops ever amid the worst drought in decades, it’s likely to save them from a late, wet planting season. There are corn varieties that mature faster, nearly 30 days in some cases, but the shorter the time to maturity, the lower the yield.