{"id":26708,"date":"2012-07-18T06:56:34","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T11:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=26708"},"modified":"2012-07-19T07:32:09","modified_gmt":"2012-07-19T12:32:09","slug":"usda-official-in-area-to-look-at-drought-damaged-crops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2012\/07\/18\/usda-official-in-area-to-look-at-drought-damaged-crops\/","title":{"rendered":"USDA official sees results of drought"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
USDA Under Secretary Michael Scuse (right) talks with Haviland area farmer Roy Klopfenstein. (Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary Michael Scuse came to the area to look at drought-damaged crops. It was a sobering experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was worse than what I had anticipated coming out here,\u201d Scuse said while looking at a drought-stunted alfalfa field near Haviland owned by Roy Klopfenstein. \u201cI knew it was going to be bad but I didn\u2019t realize it was going to be as bad as what I\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The drought conditions have had a crippling effect on local crops, especially the corn crop, which has been hit by a combination of high temperatures and low moisture at a time when the plants are beginning to form ears.<\/p>\n

Scuse said he\u2019s seen soybean plants that didn\u2019t have enough moisture to germinate and corn stalks that don\u2019t have any ears on them.<\/p>\n

The USDA official said he didn\u2019t have much hopes for much of the local corn crop. \u201cI think for the corn crop, for much of it, the damage is so far along that even if we had a tremendous amount of rainfall I don\u2019t know that it would be of much help,\u201d Scuse said, but noted that, even then, the damage is spotty. \u201cThere are some fields that I have seen that will be a total loss, (but) there are some fields out there where the corn, there is an ear on it, it did pollinate, there\u2019s, I think, still enough life left in the plant where, if we did get rain, they might be able to salvage a percentage of the crop.\u201d<\/p>\n

That won\u2019t help the plants where ears didn\u2019t form, though, Scuse noted, adding that he has seen 4-foot plants that have no ears whatsoever. The high temperatures have also negatively affected pollination, Scuse said. \u201cThe 100-degree heat doesn\u2019t help the pollination process,\u201d he noted, and pointed to Klopfenstein\u2019s alfalfa field, noting that it\u2019s hard for farmers to decide whether to harvest now or leave the plants alone. \u201cWith alfalfa, if you cut it now and it doesn\u2019t rain, it probably won\u2019t recover,\u201d the USDA official said.<\/p>\n

Van Wert County Agriculture Extension Agent Curtis Young was also somewhat pessimistic about local crops, especially the corn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty tough on the corn right now,\u201d Young said, noting that corn crop quality gets worse the closer one gets to Indiana, although it\u2019s not great anywhere in the county.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they have an ear at all, they are going to be relatively small and the kernels are not going to be very well filled out,\u201d Young said. \u201cThat all requires water and we really haven\u2019t had any.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although he said he doesn\u2019t like to make predictions, OSU Extension agent said corn yields don\u2019t look good locally.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, it\u2019s pretty poor \u2026 it may be next to nothing to come out of some of these fields,\u201d Young said, adding that other fields could see yields that are only half of what was originally expected.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the OSU ag agent said there is still hope for local soybean crops, largely because the germination process extends over a greater period and plants have far more flexibility in how germination occurs.<\/p>\n

Of course, the drought conditions are nothing new, with Young noting weather conditions tend to run in cycles. Both he and Scuse likened this year\u2019s drought conditions, though, to that of 1988, one of the most severe droughts on record.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
These corn plants have tasseled but no ears have formed. (Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scuse, who was in Michigan on Monday before Tuesday\u2019s visit to Paulding County, said he would continue his inspection in Indiana today before heading back to Washington.<\/p>\n

The USDA official recommended that farmers who know they\u2019re going to have a loss need to contact their crop insurance agents as soon as possible, but he also wondered if there were enough adjusters available to assess all the damage.<\/p>\n

From the USDA\u2019s standpoint, Scuse said Congress needs to pass the much-delayed farm bill. \u201cWe need a farm bill as soon as we can possibly get one,\u201d he said, noting that there are programs in both the Senate and House versions of the bill that could aid farmers suffering from the drought.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the lost corn could also drive prices of a number of consumer items up, since corn is used in a variety of products. The lack of feed for corn-fed livestock, such as beef, could also result in a thinning of herds and the resulting higher prices on meat and dairy products.<\/p>\n

But despite the corn crop damage — and potential for even greater crop losses down the road, if farmers don\u2019t get rain soon — Scuse said there were still some positives to be gleaned.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201dThis is not the time to panic,\u201d he said, noting that, even with an unheard of 20-bushel per acre cut in the most recent corn forecast, there are also a record number of acres planted in corn this year, thanks to optimum planting conditions earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s put this in proper perspective; yes, it\u2019s bad, but with the record number of corn acres and based on the latest numbers, this would still be the third largest corn crop in history,\u201d Scuse noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary Michael Scuse came to the area to look at drought-damaged crops. It was a sobering experience. \u201cIt was worse than what I had anticipated coming out here,\u201d Scuse said while looking at a drought-stunted alfalfa field near Haviland owned by Roy Klopfenstein. \u201cI knew it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-27 15:02:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}