Dry conditions hit some crops hard

There's been little rain the past month on Bryan Kallhoff's farm 12 miles north of Canby. An inch-and-a-half fell in June but since then only scattered showers.

Driving down gravel roads near his farm, Kallhoff assesses each field. Wheat that should be waist high is half that. Soybeans look good, but they tend to be a drought resistant crop. Corn fields vary from good condition to dried up. The worst damage is on hilltops where much of the rain runs off before it can soak in. So when dry weather comes, corn planted there suffers first.

"You can see our hills and all that, they're burnt up and they're gone," Kallhoff says. "After Saturday that heat - you could just smell the corn and all that just getting cooked out there in the field, it was so hot. It got to be 102 at my place. It was very windy so that just took the zap right out of it."

Several times over the past few weeks Kallhoff came close to a good rain. Last week a thunderstorm complex formed just a few miles from his farm. To his east several inches fell, he got only a passing shower. He stops at a neighbors corn field that's suffered extensive damage. Squatting, he scoops the dusty ground with his hand.

"Far down as you can dig, there's nothing there," says Kallhoff.

Last year Kallhoff says these fields produced about 150 bushels of corn an acre. This year, with some rain soon, he could get close to that. But without precipitation now the same fields are likely to yield far less. As he drives along Kallhoff points out that even the healthy-looking, green corn fields have problems. The leaves at the bottom of the plant are turning brown in another sign that rain is needed soon.

"(I) Keep looking at the clouds if they build up and hopefully they'll give us some," says Kallhoff. "That's all you can do."

All he and thousands of other farmers across the region can do. The weekly crop weather report shows a sharp downturn in the condition of the corn crop because of the hot, dry weather. 52% of Minnesota's corn is rated good to excellent, compared to 69% a week ago. Topsoil moisture is short or very short in 78% of the state.

Liz Stahl with University of Minnesota Extension Service says corn needs about a third of an inch of water a day right now. She says much of the state just doesn't have that sort of stockpile.

"Depends where you're at. Some areas again, those lighter soils, where they've been really under a lot of moisture stress it's a big concern," says Stahl. "Other areas where we did have good moisture in the soil we're surprised that the corn is doing as well as it is so far."

For farmers like Bryan Kallhoff the current round of dry weather is starting to remind him of past drought years, like 1988. His crop insurance will cover some of a crop loss, but it's only halfway through the growing season. There's still time for a turnaround.

"About the time you think everything looks bleak or you know things aren't going to be turning out quite as well there's always people that have it worse," says Kallhoff. "Like our friends out in western South Dakota, there's absolutely nothing out there. You can count your blessings in a way we have it. It doesn't look too bad yet. Always can be worse."

Right now the weather forecast offers little hope. More hot weather, only a slight chance of rain. For millions of acres of corn across that region, that's a forecast of more trouble ahead.

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