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Worst planting season in 53 years could cost millions

Mark Guess and his family have not been able to get into the fields to plant corn and soybeans at their family business Groco Farms in Caesarcreek Township. The prolonged wet weather has caused historic planting delays in Ohio. From left to right Mark Guess, his son Ron Guess, Troy Putnam, a Pioneer seed representative and Rock Persinger, a family member, look over field conditions Wednesday May 11.

Lisa Powell Mark Guess and his family have not been able to get into the fields to plant corn and soybeans at their family business Groco Farms in Caesarcreek Township. The prolonged wet weather has caused historic planting delays in Ohio. From left to right Mark Guess, his son Ron Guess, Troy Putnam, a Pioneer seed representative and Rock Persinger, a family member, look over field conditions Wednesday May 11.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Lisa Powell Mark Guess and his family have not been able to get into the fields to plant corn and soybeans at their family business Groco Farms in Caesarcreek Township. Farm equipment stands idle waiting for the fields to dry out. The prolonged wet weather has caused historic planting delays in Ohio.

ENLARGE PHOTO

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By Ben Sutherly and Mark McGregor, Staff Writers Updated 8:50 PM Thursday, May 12, 2011

DAYTON — Unrelenting rains have meant unprecedented delays in planting corn, one of Ohio’s most valuable cash crops, and unsettled weather threatens to keep farmers out of local fields well into next week.

The combination of high corn prices and the rising cost of transporting food and food ingredients will likely continue to contribute to higher food prices for consumers long-term, though corn prices fell Wednesday as the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast a record corn crop and bigger corn stockpiles.

Coming off of several strong years, corn growers are hoping to capitalize on those high corn prices that have flirted at times with record 2008 levels.

But in Ohio, and in much of the Corn Belt east of the Mississippi River, farmers have been frustrated by the wet weather.

Tuesday night’s deluge that left flood warnings spelled even more bad news for Clark and Champaign county farmers who were patiently waiting for their fields to dry out from the approximately 17 inches of rain since March 1.

Two inches of rain fell on Brian Harbage’s South Charleston corn and soybean acreage during the storm, leaving most of his already-wet farmland standing in water and putting his planting season farther behind. Harbage has yet to put corn or soybeans in the ground due to the wet soil.

“There’s absolutely nothing we can do,” Harbage said. “It’s going to take seven days (of no rain) to recover from what we got last night.”

As of Sunday, 2 percent of the state’s corn crop had been planted. That’s the smallest amount planted by this date since 1958, when farming practices were far different than they are today.

Corn — not to be confused with sweet corn bought at local farmers markets — pumps a considerable amount of money into the local economy. In 2008 alone, farmers in the 11-county Dayton region received more than $444 million in farm income directly from corn, a figure that doesn’t include the value derived from feeding corn to livestock or converting it into ethanol and corn syrup.

The season looks a little brighter for corn growers in Champaign County where OSU Extension County Ag Agent Harold Watters said farmers were out planting Tuesday, estimating that about 5 percent of corn acres were in the ground.

Dayton is home to a Cargill corn-processing facility, while Greenville is home to an ethanol plant, The Andersons Marathon Ethanol LLC. Cargill declined comment, citing market volatility, while The Andersons didn’t return a call seeking comment.

In 2009, Ohio’s farmers received nearly $3.5 billion in total cash receipts for corn and soybeans.

In Ohio, planting delays begin to affect corn yields after May 10, with reductions of about one bushel per day. That loss gradually accelerates to about two bushels per day by the end of May, said Peter Thomison, an Ohio State University professor and agronomist.

While significant, planting delays are just one of many factors that can influence the size of the corn crop, he said.

The target date for corn to be planted in Ohio is June 5 at the latest. After that, farmers with crop insurance may opt to make claims under “preventative planting” provisions in their policies. Or they may switch some acreage to soybeans, which can be planted in June with a smaller impact on yields.

Taxpayers subsidize crop insurance through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency. In 2010, $111 million was spent to insure Ohio’s corn crop, with taxpayers contributing $64.6 million, or 58 percent. Last year was a good year for Ohio’s corn crop, so just under $20 million in claims were paid out to Ohio farmers. Major planting delays could mean far more claims this year.

For vegetable growers like Michael Farms near Urbana, Tuesday night’s storm made an already lagging planting season the worst they’ve ever seen, according to Scott Michael, one of three brothers who own and operate the family farm.

“Since at least 1970 there were some wet ones, but this is the worst,” he said.

Vegetable growers have a different situation than corn and soybean growers, who plant in spring and harvest in fall. They have a long growing season and stagger planting from April through early August to match their harvests with marketplace demand in the grocery stores, Michael explained.

As it is, Michael Farms has in the ground only about a third of what they should have by this time of the planting season, he said. And what they do have in the ground, they can’t take care of because of the field conditions.

“I don’t know what we’re going to get,” he said. “We’ve missed several potato planting and a couple cabbage, sweet corn and green been planting. We won’t get those back.”

The company may leave those unused acres idle or plant a cash crop like feed corn or soybeans instead to try and make up the difference. They can’t double up on vegetable planting they missed due to field conditions because the demand at the market doesn’t come all at once, he said.

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