Several inches of rain that fell in August can’t repair the drought damage to Wright County’s corn crop, a farm official says, but it will help save the soybeans. Both crops are expected to fall below average because of the lack of moisture during the heat of July. For some Annandale area farmers, this will be the third straight year of poor crops, according to the official, and it’s causing them severe economic hardship. About five inches of rain fell on Annandale in less than two weeks between Saturday, Aug. 11, and Thursday, Aug. 24, according to the gauge at the public works building. That followed only about an inch of rain here during July and an early-August declaration that Wright and 23 other Minnesota counties had been designated federal agricultural disaster areas due to the drought. It’s good news that it’s started raining again, Kevin Bergquist, director of the federal Farm Service Agency office in Buffalo, said late last week. Damage done "The bad news is the damage has been done and most of the damage is irreversible," he added, referring to the corn crop. "Everybody’s been hurt," Bergquist said. "It’s just a matter of how much." The amount is "all over the board" depending on whether a farmer has light or heavy soil and whether he was lucky enough to get rain in June and July. Some corn on light soil in the Annandale area will be "zeroed out," he said, while there could easily be pockets of 80-bushel-per-acre corn as well. Corn damage is irreversible because drought and heat at a certain time result in incomplete pollination, and the kernels don’t fill out. It doesn’t matter how much rain falls now if there’s nothing to fill out. Annandale area farmer Larry Hoffman demonstrated with a cob of damaged corn. Kernels had failed to form on several rows at the top, resulting in lower yield. Some of his drought-stricken corn had no cobs at all, he said, and some had smaller ones than normal. Soybeans are different, Bergquist said, and there’s more hope for them. He repeated an old farm saying: "Rain in July makes corn. Rain in August makes beans." Soybeans are more drought resistant, he said, because they have the ability to remain dormant in a drought. "We certainly are not going to be seeing any bumper crop of soybeans," Bergquist said, "but certainly soybeans are going to be able to take more advantage of these rains than corn." Wright County’s estimated 83,000 acres of corn and 65,000 acres of soybeans will both produce below-average crops this year, he said. Hoffman farms about 1,600 acres of corn and another 1,500 acres of soybeans with his son Wade from south of Annandale to south of Cokato. He also expects to harvest below-average crops. The drought hurt all of his corn, he said, but more damage occurred to corn planted on light soil, which was also hit by hail. He expects to average 130 to 140 bushels per acre, including 20 to 30 bushels on light ground and 140 bushels on heavy soil. The drought also hurt his soybeans, but not as bad, and he expects yield to drop up to 15 percent to 40 bushels per acre. While last year’s crops turned out to be about average across the county, it was a bad year for some farmers on light soil in the Annandale-South Haven area, Bergquist said. Third year of losses "This is the third year many of those people have had losses … so it’s getting to be a severe economic crisis for many of those folks." Allan Wolff, who splits about 1,800 acres between corn and soybeans in that area as well as south to near Cokato and north of Fair Haven, said his crops have suffered "bigtime" damage to the drought. About 1,000 of his acres are light soil. He too expects both crops to be below average this year. Wolff said he’s one of the farmers experiencing severe economic hardship, and there are more than a few in Wright and Stearns counties. "Last year was really bad," he said. "This is three years in a row … It’s not good. "It’s to the point where it’s not fun anymore. "At age 56, it’s not what I want to keep doing. You want it to get easier, not harder."
