The Desha County Extension Office reported crop damage of flood, wind, and erosion as the result of the historic flash flood June 8, 2021.
John David Farabough, CEA- Agriculture, reported that most affected crops were soybeans, corn, and cotton with soybeans taking the biggest hit of the crops in the county. Corn crops experienced a variety of damage from flooding, being blown over and standing water.
Rice and Cotton have been the least affected by being under water. Some Cotton rows were eroded during the storm exposing the roots. Farabough hopes the roots can be recovered to restore the root system of the plant.
Some fields will be a total loss and some will have to be replanted in some areas. Farabough and Jeremy Ross,soybean agronomist, visited a field that had parts of it standing in water. The flooded part of the field will likely need to be replanted. The field will not be a total loss, but it will create a situation where there will be two different crops in the same field harvested at different times. With late soybean planting, producers could experience a 20-30 percent loss.
Farabough described the storm as a once in a 100 year storm that filled irrigation ditches giving the water no place to go, but the fields.
“It will make harvest interesting and farmers will have to work around affected areas,” Farabough said. “We are trying to do all we can with farmers and the extension and I hope we never have to see it again.”
Farabough estimated around 85,000 acres of farmland flooded with damages to crops from flooding, rain and wind. He said they are working satellite imagery to survey and check for damages. Seven counties have been affected by the storm including Chicot, Desha, Drew, Lincoln, Arkansas, Jefferson, Lonoke, and Prairie Counties. They are still doing research, and Phillips and Monroe Counties could be added. The extension office is currently trying to collect data points to accurately pinpoint the exact amount of damage caused by the storm.
The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Research and Extension held a meeting to discuss the impact of the storm. The meeting featured crop agronomist, weed specialist and other speakers to provide information on how to move forward after the disaster. They will also be discussing what they might see in crop yield reduction. The rains hit when the crop was in its 75-80 percent cost of production in the field and reproductive stage. Many of the farmers had input cost in their fields before it went under.
