Lingering Floods

MISSOURI RIVER FARMERS TRY TO STAY OPTIMISTIC ABOUT 2020 CROP YEAR

BY JOSEPH L. MURPHY

The clock is ticking for farmers wanting to plant crops along the Missouri River in 2020.

As winter approaches, farmers are still picking up the pieces after river flooding destroyed levees and covered farm fields. The problem they face today is much as it was in April – they are still underwater.

“Six months and seven days,” Leo Ettleman, a sixth-generation farmer from Sidney, utters with disdain as he looks at an area of farmland that could easily be confused as a lake. The valuable soybean and corn fields near the unincorporated town of McPaul have been under 5 to 6 feet of water since mid-March.

On March 19, the rapidly rising waters of the Missouri River blew out flood levees and swept across Ettleman's fields. All told, he and his son have had 1,700 acres impacted by the floods. Of that, 350 acres are still underwater and have not been dry since.

Leo Ettleman, an Iowa Soybean Association member from Sidney, walks along a county road in an area that has been flooded since March.

Josep L. Murphy/Iowa Soybean Association

Ettleman is not alone. Officials say there were 600 miles of damaged levees and 110 breaches caused by the flood. About 49,000 acres of farm ground in Fremont County were impacted, most of which were declared as preventive plant acres during the 2019 growing season. An estimated $34 million worth of stored soybeans and corn were lost as a result of the flooding.

To make matters worse, persistent rains in the Dakotas, northeast Nebraska and northwest Iowa have prolonged the flooding.

“What civilized, progressive nation goes through an eight-month flood over such a huge area?” Ettleman asks. “It is absurd.”

Ettleman inspects damage to his bin site near Percival. Ettleman was able to save a majority of the grain after the initial flood waters receded.

Josep L. Murphy/Iowa Soybean Association

Ettleman is a member of Gov. Kim Reynolds' Flood Recovery Advisory Board and a member of Responsible River Management. He blames the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for poor river and reservoir management and elevating environmental issues above all other priorities as reasons for the flooding.

“I don't know where to point fingers because there are so many places you can point them,” Ettleman says.

Flood barriers line Highway 275 in the city of Hamburg six months after the initial flooding.

Josep L. Murphy/Iowa Soybean Association

Flood barriers line Highway 275 in the city of Hamburg six months after the initial flooding.

In June, President Donald Trump signed a $19.1 billion disaster relief bill to help those impacted by storms and flooding that occurred across the U.S. In the bill, $4.5 billion was earmarked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to repair farmlands and infrastructure. Another $3 billion was given to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to repair waterway infrastructure and $1.6 billion for the Department of Transportation's highway emergency relief efforts to repair roads and bridges.

Despite the ongoing flood conditions, Ettleman hopes to farm his ground next year.

“We anticipate to farm it all,” he says. “That might be a stretch, but if there is a chance to get it planted, we will.”

A destroyed grain bin with rotten grain waits to be cleaned up in Hamburg.

Josep L. Murphy/Iowa Soybean Association

Jeff Jorgenson is president-elect of the Iowa Soybean Association and farms near Sidney. He says that for every week water remains on his fields, it is more unlikely that he will plant crops in 2020.

“You can't do anything,” Jorgenson says while looking at a field littered with rock from a nearby railroad bed and scared with deep ruts caused by floodwaters. “It is crazy to think, but all we are is “hopeful” that we get to plant a crop next year.”

His farm fields were wet the entire growing season because of untimely rains and a high water table. Wet field conditions prevented him from finishing fieldwork in preparation for 2020 spring planting.

“At the end of September we were essentially in the same boat as we were in April,” Jorgenson says. “I haven't had time to work on the damage, and the levees haven't been fixed. You just want to be able to farm but time is not on our side. Especially with winter coming.”

YOU JUST WANT TO BE ABLE TO FARM BUT TIME IS NOT ON OUR SIDE, ESPECIALLY WITH WINTER COMING.”

Jorgenson estimates that half of the farm ground along the Missouri River valley in Fremont and Mills counties hasn't been touched since the start of the flooding in March.

“The recurring flooding has taken a heavy toll, not just on the residents here, but the entire county and the state as a whole,” Ettleman says.

Contact Joseph L. Murphy at jmurphy@iasoybeans.com.