Wisconsin Flooding: Crop, Other Ag Losses Estimated in the Millions

By Karen Lee, Managing Editor
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 10:36 AM CDT

It’s still too early to tell.

That’s the report from much of the southern portion of Wisconsin that was hit by heavy rains that resulted in flooding and erosion in farm fields.

“The damage is obviously widespread,” reports Sandy Chalmers, executive officer of the Wisconsin Farm Service Agency (FSA).

Damage reports stretch from Sauk and Columbia Counties to the Illinois border and from the Mississippi to Lake Michigan.

FSA is urging farmers who have lost crops, livestock, conservation structures, fencing and ag buildings due to the recent weather to report losses to their county Farm Service Agency. This will help as the Agency is compiling damage estimates that will be used for Presidential and USDA disaster declarations.

“Help is available now,” Chalmers says, noting the Presidential disaster declaration for seven counties (at Agri-View’s deadline) allows the FSA office to make emergency loans that pay up to 100 percent of actual losses, up to a maximum of $500,000.

In addition, the Farm Bill that was recently passed includes a new permanent disaster program. “It is yet to be seen what impact that will have,” Chalmers says. “The regulations are being written now.”

Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s resilient farmers are doing what they do best n fighting through another challenge to continue to produce food, fuel and fiber for the state and nation.

Agri-View spoke with a handful of UW-Extension agriculture agents to get an idea of the impact the heavy rains and severe weather had on the industry.

Crawford County

Vance Haugen, agriculture agent, predicted damage to 7,500 to 10,000 acres along the Kickapoo River. From aerial maps, they could confirm 1,500 acres of pasture or cropland under water and the remaining land is expected to be super saturated.

Low lying areas along the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers were flooded or flooding as of Monday this week. The majority of those fields were planted with corn and soybeans, as farmers in the area keep alfalfa and pastures on higher ground.

The steep terrain of Crawford County has also had to contend with erosion and mudslides. Fifty percent of the acreage in the county is affected with some form with erosion, Haugen said.

He reported that nitrogen leaching and denitrification will be seen. “As young as the crop was, it didn’t have a chance to uptake the nitrogen. That will be a big factor in how much yield we’ll see.”

These rains came as Crawford County was trying to dry out from last summer.

“The folks that got pounded on Aug. 18-19, 2007, saw it again. This wasn’t their first rodeo,” he said. “Yet it’s fairly overwhelming back to back.”

As for livestock in the county, some horses, beef cattle and dairy heifers have been displaced from their grazing ground.

Some dairy farms in the county had to wait an extra day or milking for their milk to be picked up early last week. Since then, roads have opened or milk trucks have found alternative routes. Haugen was not aware of any producers having to dump their milk.

The impact on organic production is yet to be seen in the county. Some farms will have to check on how flood waters could impact their organic certification.

Columbia County

As of last Wednesday, 10 percent of Columbia County’s farm acreage was under water. Since then, Agriculture Agent Randy Zogbaum has not been able to travel the flooded roadways to reassess the damage.

A bigger question, he had to ask was, “What happened to the other areas not under water? How long have those soils been saturated? Will we be seeing reduced yield there?”

Similar to other areas, the county had a pretty late start for planting and the corn and soybeans were just starting to emerge.

First crop hay was 75 percent harvested with the remainder still in the field.

He could also report that some vegetable growers are looking at a total loss. “That’s not a lot of acreage, but its high value acreage,” he said.

A few livestock were displaced because of barn damage from a tornado. Others were stuck in pastures cut off by the flooding.

With the impassable roads, Zogbaum had not heard of anyone having to dump milk as of early this week.

Dodge County

Livestock Agent Bob Kaiser reported that some barns had been damaged and a few hundred cows had to be moved due to standing water in the housing area or milking parlor.

He cautioned to watch for well water contamination that will not only impact human health, but it is also a Grade A requirement for dairies.

Some producers were caught in the middle of first crop hay. The rains started on June 6 and most farmers did not have access to semi-dry fields until early this week. Therefore, any hay cut prior to the rain will be chopped back onto the fields. That which was still standing has continued to mature and the quality has deteriorated.

Matt Hanson, crops and soils agent, said farmers are using a window of opportunity this week with sunshine in the forecast to harvest what they can.

He estimated 15 to 20 percent of cropland in the county is totally under water. “I don’t suspect any crop yield will come that,” Hanson said.

In addition, a great percentage of nitrogen has been lost due to leaching and denitrification. With nitrogen prices where they are, many producers will endure additional financial hardship if they need to reapply.

Early last week he figured crop losses at $13 million and the number climbed to $20 million by Friday. This factors in the potential yield loss for the crop still standing as it will now contend with the lost nitrogen, weed control problems and an increased incidence of disease.

“We’ve got a lot of growing season left,” he said. “With a small root base, we could have other issues down the road.”

Jefferson County

Forty percent of the total corn and soybean acreage in the county is lost, said Joe Bollman, crops and soils agent. There’s a slim chance soybeans will be planted back and maybe corn for silage.

Prior to the floods, Jefferson County was looking at 81,000 acres of corn and 47,000 acres of soybeans for the season.

Some producers had finished first crop before the rains, while others hadn’t cut yet and a few unfortunate ones had hay on the ground.

Bollman is estimating losses around $30 million dollars. This includes the vegetable production in the county that will most likely be lost, as well as milk production losses from decreased feed quality.

“It was the worst time possible as far as rains are concerned,” he said. “The corn was not very high and nitrogen losses will be very high.”

Racine, Kenosha Counties

In the far southeastern corner of the state, Rose Skora, agriculture agent said the vegetable producers are struggling and some are completely wiped out.

Corn and soybean fields have spots of standing water and some corn is starting to yellow. The remainder of the corn, soybean and winter wheat fields are looking pretty good.

She had heard reports that the turf industry in the area may be underwater on their low grounds, too.

Most flooding here is from the Fox River.

Richland County

Steve Kohlstedt, community resource development agent, said his county is “waiting to see what’s going to survive.”

Ten to 20 percent of the river bottom fields have damage. Strong erosion occurred when most of the water “went as fast as it came,” he said.

Richland County is two-thirds ridges and one-third sands. In those sandy areas the groundwater is now high enough to flood fields.

The hay crop may not just have a flooding problem, but could develop root rot issues. Christmas trees and corn have a small root base that could lead to additional problems later in the growing season. Soybeans are covered in mud, which can be just as devastating as water.

Kohlstedt hadn’t heard of any livestock lost or stranded.

Sauk County

Agriculture Agent Denise Brusveen provided a rough estimate of 10 percent of crops damaged or destroyed by the weather, which amounts to 20,000 acres of mostly row crops.

Similar to Columbia County, she struggled with getting out to see the damage because of flooded roads. “We can’t get to large areas of the county,” she said.

What to do now

“Right now it’s a waiting game across the entire Midwest,” Chalmers says. “Farmers are looking at options and not knowing when to make a decision.”

For now, farmers are to report failed crop acreage to FSA to ensure eligibility for current farm programs and possible eligibility for future disaster programs.

The reporting of failed acreage to FSA is optional, but may help document crop losses and determine possible eligibility for future disaster programs.

“It is very important that farmers report failed acreage not brought to harvest to their FSA county office prior to destruction,” said FSA State Executive Director, Ben Brancel. “This simple act of insuring that failed acres are documented could be the determining factor in whether or not a farmer is eligible for future crop disaster program payments.”

Form CCC-576, Notice of Loss, is used to report failed acreage and may be completed by any producer with an interest in the crop. For crop losses on crops covered by the Non-insured Assistance Program (NAP), producers must contact their local FSA office within 15 days of the occurrence of the disaster or when losses become apparent. Producers with crop insurance should contact their local agent when losses occur and before destroying the crop.

If a producer switches from corn for grain to corn for silage, a CCC-576 for failed acreage does not need to be filed with FSA. Producers are encouraged to keep good production records on acreage with a low crop yield to document crop losses.

Farmers may revise FSA crop reports free of charge. Any crop report revision, however, must be reported before harvesting the crop or plowing the field to allow time for a field spot check.

In addition to lost crops, farmers can also report acreage they could not plant because of wet fields. The deadline for acreage reporting has been extended to Aug. 15 due to this spring’s planting delay and the recent weather. Acreage reports are required for program eligibility and are mandatory for producers who participate in the FSA programs.

Contact your local FSA or UW-Extension office with additional questions.

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