June 19, 2008

 

Agriculture bears the brunt of Indiana's "worst flood in 100 years" 

The widespread flooding across Indiana will likely be recorded as "the worst disaster Indiana's seen in 100 years" with agriculture bearing the brunt of it, according to a senior agricultural official in the state.

 

Indiana Director of Agriculture Andy Miller said state authorities are still trying to determine the extent of the damage but added crops, feed and equipment had been lost.

 

Indiana's farmer had a chance for strong profits this year, given strong commodity prices, but the floods had flushed away all hopes of that. With the local airport damaged by floods, state authorities could not even fly over to survey the damage. Offices of some county officials were flooded as well.

 

Indiana has about 1.4 million acres planted each in corn and soy.

 

Meanwhile, the USDA said Monday ( June 16, 2008) in its weekly crop progress reports that 9 percent of Indiana's corn and soybean acres were flooded, while high waters affected 5 percent of the wheat acreage. The affected areas grow about a quarter of the state's corn and soybeans.

 

A 10 percent loss in corn, beans and wheat yield results in about US$210 million lost crop value, agricultural economist Chris Hurt said. This would not have included lost pasture and forage crops, specialty crops, soil erosion or debris clean-up.

 

Indiana's agriculture department is focusing most of its efforts on helping farmers handle the debris left strewn across fields that could derail replanting or second hay-cutting efforts, Miller said.

 

However, Indiana's livestock sector weathered the storm "surprisingly well", especially for large operations. Miller said. There has been minimal livestock loss, except for some grazing animals, he added. However, with the floods having washed away much of feed supplies, the challenge would be feed availability, he said.

 

As of the USDA's June 15 crop progress report, 18 percent of Indiana's corn, 17 percent of its soy and 7 percent of its winter wheat was rated was rated poor to very poor.

 

Indiana's 2006 crop production ranked nationally fifth in corn for grain, fourth in soy and 15th in winter wheat.

 

"Nobody has their arms around this by any means yet," Purdue''s Hurt said.