Flooding, snow affect crops

Last week’s rainfall caused prospective damage to crops for area farmers.

A three-day span of storms put Monroe and 11 other counties under a flood warning from Wednesday to Friday.

“It puts us behind in field work,” said Jeff Bailey, a farmer outside of Bloomington.

Bailey has seen some prospective damage done to his crops due to the flooding. His wheat crop in particular is starting to contract diseases that stunt growth.

Bailey and his family grow corn, beans and wheat and raise cows and swine. He ships his crops to sellers straight from his field.

The diseases will make his plants shorter, Bailey said, but will not affect how the wheat would taste or affect the nutritional value of the crops.

In past incidents like this, Bailey has monitored his crops and used pesticide spray to counter damage.

“We’ve had a lot worse,” Bailey said, recalling major flood damage in 2008. “This rain is what we usually get in March.”

Joseph Nield, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Indianapolis, said rainfall varied across the state with some regions receiving two inches and other regions, such as southern Indiana, receiving four to six inches.

Nield said that what constitutes as flooding varies in different situations.

“This flood was about the amount received in a short time,” Nield said.

Because it is still the beginning of the growing season, the lack of existing vegetation to collect rain runoff makes water accumulate faster on the ground.

Otherwise, flooding standards for the National Weather Service are met by receiving more rain than the ground can handle in a season.

“Our soils have been relatively wet with the rain and snow,” Nield said.

Damage to the soil was due to the winter, which also made Bailey’s livestock
very ill.

He said his livestock are also not eating substantial grass because of ground conditions.

Bailey said he is hoping the cold could kill insects that would otherwise eat his crops.

Nield said there is rain in the forecast for tonight, but that it will not bring as much rain as the previous storms have.

Bailey said that although flooding does create damage, it will even out moisture levels in the ground which he said are currently too soft.