Yet another rainstorm dumped a record 3.75 inches of precipitation on Minot Thursday, according to the National Weather Service, turning area fields trying to sprout crops into miniature Lake Sakakaweas.
Jeremy Pederson, extension agronomist at North Central Research Extension Center south of Minot, said the areas around Minot, Velva and Max were among the hardest hit in Ward County by Thursday's storm. With the shape many fields were already in from earlier wet weather, he said there will no doubt be some losses among area farmers.
"Some of the low-lying fields along the creeks and rivers have got a lot of water on them and there's gonna be some damage on those," Pederson said. "Then on the higher fields, the low spots, sloughs are all full, there's gonna be some drown-out flooding damage from this. We haven't been able to get out to get a real good assessment of how bad it is, but there'll be some loss, that's for sure."
LoAyne Voigt, Renville County extension agent, said they've been lucky to avoid hail so far, but there is some flooding, especially in the southern part of the county. She said the Mohall area got around 2 to 2 1/4 inches of rain, while she heard the southern part of the county in the Lansford and Carpio areas got up to 4 1/2 inches, which has led to a considerable amount of standing water.
"And I guess the question will be just how saturated we were ahead of time, if it will be able to go down in a couple of days," Voigt said.
Pederson said some crops will be able to weather the storm better than others. He noted dry beans are among the worst crops when it comes to surviving standing water, while peas and lentils also do poorly in saturated conditions. Small grains and corn are among the best crops at making it through wet conditions, according to Pederson, although they do have their limits.
Information on the North Dakota State University Extension Service Web site states wheat can withstand flooded soil for up to 24 hours without excessive damage, while barley can't go quite as long before the water takes its toll. Depending on the conditions, wheat can probably survive flooding for up to two days before it starts to die off.
As for corn, it can survive two to four days of flooding in the early stages of development, and once it has reached the silking stage shallow flooding has no noticeable effect.
While water is normally good for plants, when they are completely covered it rapidly depletes the oxygen required for plant growth, according to the Web site. Moderate water movement can help because that allows some oxygen to get to the plants.
Temperature also plays a role. Cool conditions lower a plant's metabolic activity, thus its demand for oxygen, allowing it to last longer while submerged. Warm temperatures, on the other hand, do just the opposite.
Even in the best of conditions, if the fields don't dry out sooner rather than later, damage will not only be done to crops, but yet more delays will arise when farmers are unable to get into muddy fields.
"We need some sunshine and some warm weather to get it (water) off there," Pederson said. "And of course the other issue, besides the damage, is we've had so many delays and there was lots of operations that needed to be done. This is just gonna cause more delays in terms of getting out there and getting those timely pesticide applications done."
Another concern both Pederson and Voigt have with all this wet weather is disease.
"Moisture is one of the environmental factors that create a conducive situation for disease development. If the soil stays wet and we get temperatures in the 70s and 80s it'll create the environment for that disease to kind of flourish," Pederson said. "So that's gonna be something that everybody's gonna have to keep an eye on now."
"And especially like winter wheat now it's headed and gonna be flowering, fusarium head blight, or scab, becomes a concern there."
"I feel it's definitely becoming quite prevalent as you look at fields throughout the area, both below ground where those roots are saturated and having trouble and some root rot's developing in, and above ground we're seeing leaf spotting diseases on many different crops starting to develop," Voigt said.
Pederson doesn't know how much more rain area fields can take before large losses start to mount, but said if the water doesn't start to dry off some of the more saturated areas in the next five days, crops could start disappearing.
Voigt agrees, although she noted the opposite end of the spectrum could be just as bad.
"You know, I can't say that I really would like to shut it off because we all here in North Dakota know what the alternative can be too," she said with a laugh. "But we are definitely reaching that maximum capacity point where it would be nice to have more of our conventional rains at this point."
While Pederson wouldn't go so far as to call the storm a disaster, he did say localized areas near rivers and creeks could see substantial losses, and other fields that have been deluged with constant rain might show some damage as well.
"They've (farmers) dealt with these types of rain before, and definitely it takes something off the bottom line because we don't know until really we get to combine what the long-term damage was to some of those low spots," Pederson said. "I wouldn't necessarily call it a disaster, but it's definitely a adverse event. It's gonna take a little bit off the bottom line."
