Across the Mid-South, May 11, 2009: Wet and wetter

The news across the Mid-South this week is rain. Lots of rain. Some areas had begun to need a shower about 10 days ago. But the 6 to 8 inches that many areas caught was more than enough. The worst situation was where the rain totals are in the 8- to 10-inch category. Thousands of acres are flooded, and the drainage systems, large and small, are at flow capacity. Worse, rains dominated the weekend weather. And rain is predicted today on a wide area. We've received reports of heavy amounts in southeast Arkansas and the south Delta of Mississippi.

The management challenge is great. With waterlogged soil, oxygen content is very low. No doubt, there will be some stand losses due to field flooding.

Tom Barber, Arkansas Extension Agronomist, notes that cotton that is waterlogged for 36 hours may likely die. If you are considering replanting, just remember that if you can get cotton past the 2-leaf stage with a decent root system, it’s a tough plant. But it's also a tough call when it comes to replanting.

Click here to read Barber's comments.

Reports from across the Mid-South note infestations of armyworms in corn and wheat and cotton. Close scouting is needed to protect yield potentials.

Other high points from reports posted today on AgFax.Com:

Arkansas: For the week ending Sunday, May 10, all of the 36 weather stations regularly tracked in the state recorded at least an inch of rain, and 17 recorded at least 4 inches of rain, according to today's Arkansas Crop Condition And Progress report. "With reports of flooding in low-lying fields and water-logged soils, some producers have switched their sorghum and corn intentions over to soybeans," it was noted.

Kentucky: "The Commonwealth experienced yet another week of excessive rainfall, as last week was the 6th week out of the past 7 with above normal rainfall," according to Monday's Kentucky Weekly Crop And Weather Report. "Consequently, this wet pattern has caused growers throughout the Bluegrass State to be continually delayed in field operations. In fact, several counties have reported areas of excessive flooding to the point that they are underwater. Temperatures continued on the warm trend as above normal values were reported for the 3rd straight week."

Louisiana: Compared to states to its north, Louisiana had a longer window last week for field work and planting, according to Monday's Louisiana Crop Weather Summary. The report noted that: "Planting of field crops continued to progress. Rice desiccated by windy weather. Rice producers began application of herbicides. Sugarcane producers fertilized fields, and rust was reported in sugarcane."

Mississippi: "The continuous rainfall has interrupted field activities across much of the state," according to the state's Weekly Weather Crop Report. "Some producers are waiting for the weather to improve to assess any damage and discuss replanting intentions."

Mississippi Extension reports included:

• “The ground is saturated. Farmers are waiting to see how much replanting will need to take place.” — Laura Giaccaglia, Bolivar
• “Muddy, soggy, flood-like conditions continue to plague planting attempts. We actually need some light showers to keep the ground soft to let the planted crops emerge.” — Jimbo Burkhalter, Tallahatchie
• “Continued scattered rains have once again hampered field activities. We need some dry weather here in the extreme Northeast part of the state.” — Patrick Poindexter, Alcorn
• “Rain has prevented any fieldwork. Producers got very little corn planted. Cotton will be late if it gets planted at all. Quoting a producer, 'I'd rather be waiting on the fields to dry up to plant instead of waiting for them to get moisture to plant.'” — Danny Owen, Tishomingo
• “We have received approximately 15 inches of rain in the last 10 days. When it finally dries up, we will have a lot of replanting to do.” — Eddie B. Harris, Humphreys
• “Everything is wet. Some replanting will occur due to packing rains preventing crop emergence.” — Bill Burdine, Chickasaw

Missouri: Some replanting is likely in southeast Missouri due to wet conditions, according to Monday's Missouri Crop Progress And Condition report. Rice planting was running 5 days behind normal, while cotton was behind 11 days.

--Tom Crumby

The Hand That Feeds U.S.: Looking for support in a shifting world of media

I don't often read through a press release and then sit back and say, "That's refreshing."

But that did happen today when I scanned an announcement about a new pro-ag web site and campaign built around the phrase "The Hand That Feeds U.S." The idea is to build some understanding among "big city reporters" about the role farmers and agriculture play in modern society.

Linda Raun, a Texas rice producer, noted in the announcement:

"It makes no sense that we're (farmers) being demonized in many of the nation's top media markets. It's not the journalists' fault. We haven't done a good enough job telling them our story. We've been negligent in explaining that farmers feed and clothe every person in this country, employ 20 percent of the nation's workforce and will be at the center of America's economic recovery."

What's refreshing is the fact that a group finally understands and admits that ag has done a poor job in both beating its own kettle and gaining some semblance of respect and recognition from the broader part of America, especially in urban areas.

The project's announcement and the web site, itself, are a bit short on info about how the group will go about accomplishing any of this. I hope this doesn't turn into yet one more well meaning web site that nobody visits.

We hear a good deal of frustration from marketing folks with major ag manufacturers and farmer groups about how they've thrown 6-figure sums at web sites and generated very little traffic. Somebody has to keep the site fresh and continue drawing attention to it, which is the point people miss when they envision a web site. It's a bit like being in the dairy business. The cows have to be fed and milked multiple times a day Occasionally posting links to articles in farm magazines is never enough. You'd better have something compelling for any reports who happen to find out about the site.

One challenge with all this is the sheer disintegration of big-city newspapers, where the intended target audience - reporters and editors - work. Those papers are the ones that lead TV stations and even bloggers into the next new thing. Most papers now lack the manpower to pay attention to anything other than their immediate beats. A friend who's an executive editor at a major newspaper in the Southeast told me that his staff dropped from over 300 to something like 190 in one massive round of layoffs last year. He's already treading water to keep up with the local news, not to mention an ongoing push to blend things like podcasts, blogs and videos into their news approach.

At one time he probably could have been cajoled into sending a reporter on the road to research and write a series of articles on the present and future of farming. But that won't happen now.

Sorry for sounding so negative. On the whole, the announcement is good news. All this has been deeply on my mind lately. I'll try to elaborate a bit on my own ideas over the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, click here to read the announcement.

Will There Be Enough Trucks?

As I left the bluffs at Vicksburg, that same old feeling crept over me. It’s funny how it happens. You may leave that flat Delta land and live somewhere else, but a part of you remains there forever – especially if you were involved with agriculture. And, more particularly, if you had anything to do with cotton. And, quite naturally, I started looking for a field of cotton. True it was a little early, but…

By the time I got to Rolling Fork I was in a panic. Where was the cotton?

All I had seen was corn or soybeans. There were a few unplanted fields that might go to cotton, but not many. I had seen planting intentions that talked about a 40% reduction in Mississippi cotton acres. The trouble is, I don’t know when they started the calculations. The numbers that I understand better say that in 2006 there were about 1.2 million acres of cotton in Mississippi. For 2009 the predictions are for a little over 350,000 acres. And for that size crop, there may only be about 70 gins running. Similar data are said to apply in other cotton areas.

Cotton producers and researchers began to look into ways to get the crop to the spinner more efficiently. Through a process of evolution, we now have boll buggies, module builders and module haulers that allow the pickers to roll on. And now we have new pickers with attached module builders. And high density presses shrink the bale size to get more bales on a truck. This is a story of efficiency.

I can understand all that. But it is not the question I pose.

The new combines are bigger and faster. The diesel truck and grain trailer look the same as they did years ago, just faster. Faster to get to the elevator quicker to painfully wait in the line.

Now the question: where will we get all the trucks needed to get this huge grain crop to the elevator.

If somebody can figure out how to engineer a quick way to turn a boll buggy into a grain hauler they’ll briefly be a hero.

- Tom Crumby

Eat more Lay's

At the Kroger this morning the store's PA system - the one that usually tells you about bargains in the meat department - carried a Lay's potato chip commercial that mainly praised the farmers who grew the potatoes. Wish I had had a recorder with me. Essentially, it said that without the farmers, there wouldn't be Lay's potato chips.

The recorded announcement still directed shoppers to a potato chip display. Nonetheless, it was refreshing to hear a company actually connect its product to the people who grow it.

Addendum, May 12:

We received a press release from Lay's today that announces a new marketing campaign that actually features the farmers who grow the company's potatoes. See:

Lay's Launches New Marketing Campaign Celebrating Local People, Communities Behind Its Potato Chips 5-12

- Owen Taylor

Off Topic: For anyone with hummingbird feeders

If you enjoy hummingbirds, click here.

- Owen Taylor