Iowa farmers unsure what’s next

WOODWARD, IOWA >> Usually this time of year, someone could get lost in the tightly packed sea of corn that surrounds farmer Rod Pierce’s house in central Iowa.

But two weeks after a rare storm tore a 40-milewide swath through Iowa, it’s more like a lush, thick mat of flattened cornstalks stretching in all directions, far past Pierce’s farm.

“It’s just unbelievable, is probably the word. I don’t know how else to describe it,” he said.

Pierce is among hundreds of Iowa farmers who are still puzzling over what to do after the Aug. 10 derecho, a storm that hit several Midwestern states but was especially devastating in Iowa as it cut through the middle of the state with winds of up to 140 mph. The National Weather Service described the storm’s intensity as a “once-in-a-decade occurrence in this region.”

The storm damaged crops in just over one-third of Iowa’s 99 counties, according to early estimates. Iowa is typically a national leader in corn and soybean production, and farmers in the worst hit counties had planted 3.6 million acres of corn and 2.5 million acres of soybeans.

Not all the damaged crops have been ruined, and even those like Pierce who saw the worst of the devastation might be able to salvage some kind of harvest. But for many it will be a devastating end to a season that at one time seemed so promising. After years of trade wars, exports were increasing to China, an increase in driving was raising demand for corn-based ethanol, and Iowa was expected to approach a record for the crop.

For those in the storm’s path, much of that optimism has been blown away.

“It’s discouraging, I guess. Frustrating. We had a nice looking crop,” said Pierce who began farming in 1973.

Or as Mark Licht, an Iowa State University assistant professor and crop specialist, put it: “A good portion of the state had a really good crop before the storm. Now there are farmers outside the storm path who have a really good crop.”

Licht said the extent of damage to Iowa corn is probably worse than during a 2012 drought. Iowa’s crop was reduced by about 20%.

Soybeans — which grow on bushy plants closer to the ground — seem to have fared far better than the corn.

Corn damage varies. Some fields battered by hail and wind have nothing remaining but sticks poking out of the ground.