Excess rain has mixed effects on farmers

Generally, summer months are hot and dry, but this year, rainfall levels are higher than usual for the months of June and July.

According to Tom Hansen, an agronomy specialist with the University of Missouri Outreach and Extension office, the excess rain wasn't a good thing for winter crops like wheat.

"It did delay harvest on them, and the grain was a little bit wetter than what you normally like," he said. "The longer it sits in the field, the lower the quality, so we probably did not have quite the quality of grain that we would normally have because of the wet conditions in June."

Winter-crop farmers aren't the only ones whose crops are affected by the rains.

Roland Netzer, president of the Greater Springfield Farmers' Market, said there are two ways excess rainfall negatively affects market farmers, who primarily grow vegetables.

"One is that we have a tremendous weed problem, and No. 2, most of us plant on a schedule. We start planting green beans in mid-April green beans and cucumbers I'll use as an example. We plant those every 10 days on up until the middle of August, and normally, through the July period, this planting schedule is not interrupted," Netzer said.

Netzer said this year, the ground didn't dry up enough during July for farmers to continue planting on schedule, which may eventually affect the availability of some vegetables at the Farmers' Market.

"It takes those green beans and cucumbers about six weeks from planting to when you're picking so when you miss a planting date, six weeks later, your production drops," he said.

Both Hansen and Netzer noted, though, that the rain has had some positive affects on farmers as well.

"The corn that was planted this year was probably some of the best corn we've had in 20 years or more, because we did have some good moisture through June and July, and it looks like we're going to have some tremendous yields this year," Hansen said.

Hansen said the rule for farmers is that they don't generally complain about rain in the summertime, because although it does hurt the wheat, it also helps other crops.

In addition to the corn, it was good for the grain sorghum, which Hansen said will be fine with one more good rain, and the soybeans, which will need more rain this month to be a good crop.

Netzer agreed that the extra rain is good, because crops that need the water get plenty, and he said it also cuts down the amount of irrigation watering farmers have to do.

Netzer said for the Springfield area in particular, where many farmers are beef or dairy cattle producers, the additional rain is good because it helps their pastures.

"Pastures are very important to them, and generally, by this time of year, we're out of pasture or close to it. However, because of the rain in June and July, we've got some fairly luscious pastures out there and that's making the farmers a lot of money," Hansen said.

He said a lot of times, during the summer months, farmers have to supplement their animals' pasture diets, which can be fairly expensive.

"Last year at this time, some farmers were already beginning to feed hay, which is very expensive at this time of year. Pasture probably costs them less than half of what hay does, so as far as having good pastures this time of year, that's money in the pocket," he said.

Dr. Alan Wessler is the director of feed marketing for MFA Inc. He said the company is having a good year overall for beef supplement sales, but he noted sales this July were a little less compared to July a year ago.

He said that's probably due in part to the additional rain in the southwest Missouri area.

"A year ago, it was very dry in Springfield, to Mountain Grove and West Plains. It was dry all summer, as opposed to this year," Wessler said.

But Wessler said the drop in beef supplement sales hasn't been significant, because most of the supplements MFA sells in this area are for creep feeding,

He said creep feeding is used to increase calves' weight so they earn more money at sale time.

Wessler said it is true that in dry times, farmers will think sooner about putting creep feeders out or adding supplements for older cows, but he said even when grass and pastures grow well, the calves still need to be creep fed.

"There comes a point when the calf's nutritional needs are greater than what Mom alone can supply. It's just growing that fast ... they need a lot of energy to achieve that growth," he said.

"What you may see is the individual who was beginning to put out a few beef cubes for his (older) cows, to help them along, that has probably quit. But what we have seen is that it has not impacted our overall sales all that much," he added.

Wessler said MFA's overall beef supplement sales, are up 17 percent year-to-date.