Sioux City Journal, IA
08-21-07
Storms help bean crops, flatten some corn
By John Quinlan, Journal staff writer
'Twas the best of times and the worst of times Monday for Siouxland farmers as
occasionally heavy rain, accompanied in places by hail, lightning and high winds,
swept through Northwest Iowa.
The rain was a godsend for many soybean farmers, giving them a boost on some
of their yields, Iowa State University Extension crop specialist Joel DeJong
said from Le Mars.
"The bad news is, we had some localized winds that sounded like they were fairly
high today," he said. "We lost some corn pretty significantly in some
neighborhoods."
DeJong said some corn fields south of Le Mars and south of Remsen were
reportedly "knocked flat" by winds gusting in the neighborhood of 60 mph. There
were also isolated reports of hail damaging nearby fields. And when corn gets
shot down this time of year, it's not going to come back, he said. The wind
damaged some of the root systems, making recovery impossible this year.
The rain itself probably won't hurt corn yields, but it will make it difficult to harvest,
with water standing in fields throughout the region, DeJong said.
"Either way, we're going to need some precipitation between now and spring to
really start recharging it," he said of the ground moisture that was sadly lacking at
the start of the present crop year.
"We started the year with 11 inches of water in the top 5 feet of soil. We used it,"
he said. "So we've got a lot of moisture we've got to recharge our soil with, at
least in those areas north of Sioux City that haven't received rain all summer until
early August."
Hawarden, for instance, recorded not one drop of rain in July.
The early August rains, in fact, were much more beneficial than this week's
rainfall, which is expected to continue for the next few days, DeJong said.
Monday's rainstorm drew reports of flash flooding in Sioux County, particularly in
the Orange City area, downed trees and branches in Storm Lake and Cherokee,
quarter-sized hail and larger in the Le Mars vicinity and street flooding in Spirit
Lake, said meteorologist Philip Schumacher of the National Weather Service in
Sioux Falls. A spokesman for the Sioux County Sheriff's Department, however,
discounted reports that cars had been washed off Iowa Highway 10 near Orange
City.
Schumacher said the thunderstorm predictions for this week come as the result
of a stationary front set up since last Friday in northern Nebraska and Iowa that
keeps wavering back and forth between Interstates 80 and 90.
"So what's been happening is that you get your 1 to 2 inches of rain, and since
your front doesn't move, it's hitting close to the same area each day, and it will
continue to do so again until maybe Wednesday or Thursday, where there's
going to be a chance of heavy rain somewhere between I-80 and I-90," he said.
ISU Extension crop specialist Paul Kassel of Spencer noted that
Emmetsburg had recorded 11 inches of rain by Sunday. A little farther west,
Spirit Lake logged in 9 inches since Friday, said state Department of Natural
Resources conservation officer Gary Owen from Lake Okoboji. But Owen said
the rain has not caused any problems at Okoboji, the lake level having dropped
after a long, dry summer.
Kassel said there is concern about some area crops, particularly soybeans, being
under water come harvest time. But it will depend on how long the water
remains. A few hot, sunny days at the end of the week could be all area farmers
need to take care of the extra water.
Not on Highway 20
The U.S. 20 Corridor Association's plans for a Monday meeting in Calhoun
County were washed away by the rain. The event was postponed due to heavy
rains and flooding in the Knierim area. The meeting had been called to mark the
beginning of grading a 21-mile section of relocated Highway 20 in Calhoun and
Webster counties.