Soggy spring brings puddles of trouble for Lansing-area corn, soybean farmers

FOWLER - Most years, the corn and soybeans on Pat Feldpausch's Clinton County farm would be going strong by now.

This year, they aren't going at all.

The 52-year-old career farmer was unable to plant any of his corn until Tuesday, and none of his soybean crop was in the ground.

"Typically, we want to be done (planting) by May 15, or June 1, for sure," Feldpausch said Wednesday as he sprayed to kill the weeds in one of his unplanted fields. "I've never seen anything like this. It's not just Michigan. It's the whole corn belt."

Many other mid-Michigan farmers are feeling his pain.  

Repeated storms have left fields so saturated that farmers haven't been able to work in them, backing them up against insurance-related planting deadlines, threatening their yields and affecting their bottom lines.

As of June 2, only 42% of Michigan's corn and 31% of its soybeans were in the ground, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That's well below the five-year averages of 87% for corn and 73% for soybeans. Only 2.2 days were suitable for fieldwork in Michigan last week.

Planting was even further behind in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and South Dakota.

Wet conditions also were affecting winter wheat stands, livestock grazing and hay cutting, the agency said.

"This is the worst I've seen," said George Silva, an MSU Extension field crops educator whose region includes Ingham, Eaton and Livingston counties. "I think there are some people who are not going to plant and will just take the insurance."

Even if the rest of the growing season goes well, yields will be impacted, Silva said.

Unrelenting rain

Lansing's precipitation for March through early June was above normal, but not dramatically so, the National Weather Service said.

But rainfall totals can vary widely across even relatively small geographic areas, and the storms have been so frequent that fields haven't been able to dry out long enough for farmers to work them.  

The 2.21 inches of rain that fell in Lansing over the first five days of June was about 1.6 inches above normal for the period, weather service meteorologist Janis Laurens said. And it came at a particularly bad time for farmers. 

Mason-area farmer Gary Haynes, who retired in February but is still involved in the large-scale operation he ran in Ingham, Eaton and Jackson counties, said planting was underway when storms dumped another 1.3 inches of rain on Saturday. That means they'll have to wait another six to eight days and reassess their options, he said.

"We only need nine days to put in our corn, and we didn't get nine days," he said early this week. "If it rains tomorrow, we're going to switch to beans."

As of mid-week, about 45% of the operation's corn and about 15% of its soybeans were in the ground, he said.

The wet weather has pushed insured farmers up against their prevented planting dates, which fall in early June for corn and a little later for soybeans. If their crops aren't in by those dates, their insurance coverage goes down.

Faced with those deadlines, farmers can switch to another crop or plant a cover crop and file a claim for a portion of their crop's value.  

'It's just really scary'

Feldpausch works about 2,500 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat in the Fowler area and does custom farming on other acreage. His wife, Becky, and two of his sons work with him.

In his area, only about 10% of the corn and none of the soybeans had been planted as of mid-week, he said. He was still planning to get all of his corn in the ground and predicted many other area farmers will do the same.

"A lot of corn will get planted because there are a lot of cows in this area," he said.

The wet spring means added costs for farmers, he said. Before he can plant, for example, he has to spray for weeds "because the weeds are really bad," he said. 

Lower yields might mean farmers who sold grain in advance will have to buy some on the open market to fulfill their contracts, Feldpausch said. Because corn prices are up right now, they'll have to pay the higher price.

"It's bad, very bad," he said. "There are people who are going to go broke over the whole deal. We're talking about good farms in this area. It's just really scary."

The winter wheat crop also has been affected by the wet spring, Silva and Feldpausch said. Farmers are normally harvesting wheat right now, but many haven't been able to take out their wheat and get another crop in its place. The wheat crop isn't very big, either, Feldpausch said.

"It's been kind of a double whammy there." he said.

Corn and soybeans are big business in Michigan, together contributing about $2 billion to the economy.

Projected shortages have driven up corn and soybean prices from long-depressed levels driven by surpluses. Federal officials also have vowed $16 billion in aid to farmers hurt by the trade fight with China.

"We've got good prices, so we can make money if we can get it produced," Haynes noted. "There's a lot of grain in a lot of people's bins, so now they are going to sell at a profit."

As for the weather, things were looking up.

The region is settling into a drier pattern, with rain mostly staying to the south and east, the weather service said. Rain and thunderstorms are possible on Sunday night and Monday, however.

Contact Ken Palmer at (517) 377-1032 or kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.