How flooding may or may not impact central Ohio farmers

LANCASTER, Ohio (WCMH) - Several inches of rain across central Ohio have resulted in road closures due to flooding and standing water in farmer's fields.

Early rain tends to help kickstart a crop in the spring, but not necessarily if the rain comes before planting season.

Ty Higgins from the Ohio Farm Bureau said Wednesday the rain and subsequent flooding may not have too much of an impact on this spring's planting.

"No one's hitting the panic button right now," Higgins said. "But the concern is, does Mother Nature one just shut off and we plant into dry soil like we did last year? Or do we get into a spot where we can plant for a couple of days and we have another rainy pattern and not able to get the crops in in a timely manner. So those are the two things farmers are really thinking about right now."

Last year, farmers were planting crops in mostly dried out soil, which isn't ideal either. This year, Higgins and farmers across the state are hoping for more favorable planting conditions. Some moisture in the top three to four inches of the soil is ideal, but not so much moisture that tractors and farm implements drag through mud and risk getting stuck.

"With how much rain we've gotten over the last couple of days and weeks, really it's going to take a long time for those fields to dry out," Higgins said. "You never really set a schedule with Mother Nature, especially here in Ohio. I don't think we've had a really conducive weather pattern for spring planting in years."

The business of farming and agriculture has a long history of importance in the State of Ohio.

"Agriculture is Ohio's number one industry, $12 billion a year going to agriculture's bottom line," Higgins said. "One in eight jobs tied to food and farm production."

So, if crops don't get planted in time, that time is money. There's a trickle down, or trickle up, effect crops have on society. Everything from groceries to gasoline is impacted by the crops that are produced every year.

John Hummel has been farming the land in Franklin and Fairfield Counties for more than fifteen years. It's a family business for him.

"Weather affects all of us and it affects us in a big way," Hummel said. "But, you know, it's, it's what we love to do and we're passionate about it."

NBC4 visited one of his fields in Fairfield County on Wednesday. It was largely under water after several inches of rain fell on Monday and Tuesday. He's confident the water will clear up by the end of the week, leaving plenty of time for the soil to be dry enough for planting in a few weeks. But he knows the planting schedule isn't up to him.

"We don't make a plan that, hey, we're going to start planting on April 15th," Hummel said. "And that's what's going to happen because Mother Nature, she's the one who says when we can or can't be in the field. And but so that that's a struggle."

A field full of water means planting gets pushed back. That pushes back everything else from treating the crops with nutrients all the way to harvest. Every minute delayed could mean a more expensive crop.

"As you get later, It just backs things up later, makes it makes the corn wetter in the fall, which is harder for us to handle," Hummel said. "We have to dry it more. It's more costly."

Hummel said if the rain we've seen in the first couple days of April were to come after the crops were planted, it could be catastrophic.

"There's times where you do have something, a field like this planted, and you get a big rain like this and it is it is one of the worst things that can happen to the crop," Hummel said.

In that case, he has replanted in past years when the crops were ruined early enough.

Hummel has been farming long enough to know that whatever Mother Nature brings, farmers will adjust.

"We have been pushed clear into June getting planted, which is not ideal, but it's still doable," Hummel said. "It seems like the weather patterns have pushed us later than we used to 10 to 15 years ago. But it's also allowed for better rainfall throughout the growing season."

Rain and floods aren't the only thing on the minds of farmers this time of year. They are also keeping an eye on Washington, D.C. Congress failed to pass a new Farm Bill in 2023 after the previous bill expired in September.

Higgins works to bridge the gap between lawmakers and farmers. He said Congress extended the previous Farm Bill which dates back to September 2018 in order to 'put off' passing a new one.

"They kicked it down the road another year," Higgins said. "And so we need a new five year farm bill here at the end of 2024. That is something that's on the farmers minds really heavily right now."

The Farm Bill provides funding for programs that largely benefit the agriculture and nutrition industries. One of the provisions is money for Crop Insurance, which, had a downpour happened after planting, could've put many farmers in a position to need it.

"It's a tool that in in scenarios like we've got here in in natural catastrophes and whatnot, it can save it can really save a farm," Hummel said.

The extension on the 2018 Farm Bill is set to expire again in September 2024.