Estimate: $200+ Million in Crop Damage in Southeastern Arkansas Flooding
Farmers in five counties in southeastern Arkansas suffered more than $200 million in direct losses to primary crops after the major flooding and storm event in early June, according to a preliminary estimate by experts with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
John Anderson, Economist with the Division of Agriculture and the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, delivered the initial estimate during a flood recovery meeting held June 21 in Dumas, AR. He was one of about a dozen experts with the Division of Agriculture presenting crop-specific information and answering questions during the meeting.
Dumas and the nearby Division of Agriculture research station at Rohwer are at the emotional – if not quite geographical – center of the flooding event, during which more than 19 inches of rainfall was recorded in a 48-hour period. The five counties included in the damage estimate include Desha (home to both Dumas and Rohwer), Lonoke, Prairie, Jefferson and Drew counties. The estimate did not include Chicot County, the southeasternmost county in the state, although it will likely be impacted as floodwaters continue to drain southward from Desha County on their way to the Mississippi River.
Anderson said the estimates concerned five major crops: soybeans, rice, corn, cotton and wheat. The associated loss estimates amounted to $70 million each in soybeans and rice, $60 million in corn, $6 million in cotton and approximately $1 million in wheat and grain sorghum.
“That’s where we stand today,” Anderson said, noting that as counties begin to revise their estimates, those numbers will likely change. The estimates did not include specialty crops.
Vic Ford, Associate Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources for the Division of Agriculture, said that about 600,000 acres of cropland in southeastern Arkansas were affected by the flooding event, with about half that submerged in several feet of water for an extended period. He said growers farming crops within the 300,000 heavily affected acre area were likely facing total crop loss for the season.
Cotton
Bill Robertson, Extension Cotton Agronomist for the Division of Agriculture, said about 4.5% to 5% of the cotton crop in southeastern Arkansas had been lost to flood damage in June.
Robertson said that, in the wake of the flood, many cotton growers will need to plow the soil to break the surface crust so that the soil can breathe.
“But when we do that, we have to be very careful not to destroy the roots that are there, because cotton tends to be shallow-rooted in these conditions,” Robertson said.
He warned against over-irrigating and over-fertilizing once the floodwaters drain off and the full heat of summer is upon the land.
“We’ve got a lot of potential ways to shoot ourselves in the foot,” Robertson said.
He said growers may be tempted to overcompensate for perceived losses in nitrogen by applying additional fertilizer on fields that had already been appropriately fertilized in the spring.
“After a short while, the oxygen will get deeper into the soil, and we’ll get a good deep root system on the cotton plants again,” Robertson said. “But when the plant picks up all that nitrogen we’re putting out, then you’ve got a plant that’s in high gear, going as fast as it can go at a point in the season when we’re wanting it to slow down for harvest.”
Managing Weeds
Tommy Butts, Extension Weed Scientist for the Division of Agriculture, said growers should keep three key things in mind when managing weeds in the aftermath of the flood.
“Weed management isn’t going to get any easier after the flood,” Butts said. “It’s going to be on a very field-specific, case-by-case basis. It’s going to be challenging. You’re going to have a different situation in every field. It’s going to take careful scouting and precise management.”
Butts reminded growers that although any residual herbicides growers applied before the flood might be washed away, they still count toward their total seasonal use of herbicides.
Butts also reminded the group that with the June 30 cutoff date for dicamba herbicide application looming, growers should give careful thought as to what soybean varieties they will replant, if necessary.
“Even if your crop survives the flood, coming up against this cutoff date, you want to think about your next options for controlling pigweed,” he said.
Insect Management
Gus Lorenz, Extension Entomologist for the Division of Agriculture, warned that while insect pressure will likely be intense going forward, growers should still pay attention to the threshold recommendations for applying insecticides, rather than making unnecessary applications.
“We’re in a bind, and the tendency is to overcompensate for that,” Lorenz said. “Those thresholds are there to tell you when you need to make applications. Every day we don’t have to spray is a good day. We don’t want to spend money on crops we don’t need to spray with insecticide.”
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