FOUNTAIN — During the third weekend of September, many southern and southeastern counties got hit with heavy rain and flash flooding, with some areas receiving around 6-9 inches of rain. For farmer Jason Schwarz, the 7 inches that fell on his crops are not causing major concerns.
“For the most part, we fared pretty well,” Schwarz said. “We just had a lot of rain, and it’s just going to take a little while to dry.”
Schwarz farms corn, soybeans and alfalfa between the Fountain and Preston areas. He also runs his own business, JMS Agronomics Inc., where he sells Pioneer seeds and offers agronomy services and some chemical services.
With farmland along both sides of the Watson Creek, which flows into the Root River, Schwarz said water levels quickly rose the night of Sept. 18, bringing flooding and debris right to the fields. On Saturday morning, Schwarz awoke to find flooded fields and a bridge partially washed out.
“We spent three quarters of the day just trying to repair stuff,” he said. “It came up fast — I would call it a flash flood. By 9 o’clock, it was low enough that we could start working on the bridge, but conditions were still wet enough that the water was still up there a bit.”
While most of the crops survived the event, some bean ground was flooded, leading to worries about zero yields in those areas, Schwarz said. There are also minor concerns regarding corn stalk quality in the flooded areas, along with kernels potentially sprouting if moisture remains high. However, the upright ears seem stable, he said.
“There really wasn’t a lot a person could do about that amount of rain we had in that short time; we had 7 inches in five or six hours,” Schwarz said.
Back in June, Schwarz experienced a similar experience: around 7 or 8 inches of rain caused a flash flood, and logs, sticks and rocks were pushed from the banks of Watson Creek into the fields. Despite the heavy rainfall this summer, Schwarz is expecting respectable crops, as silage yields have been reaching 230 to 250-plus bushels.
“A couple of early reports we got seemed like yields and silage are above average,” he said.
Even though numbers seem up, Schwarz has been keeping an eye on the impacted fields, closely monitoring the crops to ensure rot or disease has not taken over. Other southern farmers are also worrying about the damage and possible rotted crops, as many were hit hard and their crops remain underwater.
Some, like Nathan Heim near St. Charles, experienced strong windstorms that flattened crops.
“The big rain missed us; we got a couple inches over the weekend,” Heim said. “The larger concern in my area has been the wind event from a few weeks ago.”
In the early hours of Sept. 2, the National Weather Service reported that 68 mph winds were near Rochester, which is almost 30 minutes west of St. Charles. For Heim, who also sells seeds, he said wind impacts his growers and him more than rain.
Schwarz agreed, stating he had driven north near where Heim farms and witnessed how much more damage there was.
“It’s pretty flat up there,” he said. “That’s way worse than what we’re dealing with here, but we’ll have some challenges.”
As harvesting gets underway, Schwarz believes his crops will produce high yields and be of good quality. He said they will have to be proactive when combining, as they can run into debris from the flood, which can then damage equipment. He also said nearby farmers have begun chopping, and some are thinking of getting their beans in relatively soon. However, it all depends on Mother Nature and the upcoming weather.
“We might try to get some early corn that we planted in, but if we don’t get a lot of rain, we’ll start progressing here again,” Schwarz said. “I think we got nice crops coming, and hopefully, everyone has a safe harvest and grinds through the challenges.”
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