| PERLEY, Minn. (AP) -- Four months ago, the prospect of a
sugar beet harvest hardly seemed possible to farmer Bryan Hest.
His field -- and thousands of acres of wheat, beans, corn and other
crops near the Wild Rice River -- was under water for days after a
torrential June rain soaked several northwestern Minnesota counties,
pushing the Wild Rice over its banks and across the countryside.
Half of the tillable acres in Norman and Clay counties were flooded.
Losses were staggering -- an estimated $50 million. In the days that
followed, Hest and his neighbors talked wearily of the frustrating run of
miserable growing seasons, their diminishing equity and the prospect of
getting out.
But the months since have brought mild weather, little disease and a
better-than-average crop, giving farmers affected by the flooding -- with
help from federal government subsidies -- some optimism in a year once
feared lost.
Now, with cool weather signaling harvest time, Hest and neighbor Paul
Houglum set out last week to lift rows of sugar beets from Houglum' s
field.
Across Minnesota, farmers are harvesting crops with high yields, but
that good news is offset by continuing low commodity prices.
" In general, it' s been a good year cropwise, " said Michael
Hunst, statistician with the Minnesota Agricultural Statistics Service.
Even in the Red River Valley, which has been plagued by disease, heavy
rains and flooding in recent years, agriculture experts consider the 2000
growing season to be one of the best in a long time. Yields for some
crops, such as wheat, are better than average and, in some places, the
best since 1992, said Duane Berglund, Extension Service agronomist at
North Dakota State University in Fargo.
Which makes Hest and his neighbors wonder " what if?"
" If we could wipe that 18 hours or 12 hours off the summer,
things would have to be considered very good, " the 39-year-old
farmer said last week as beet harvest began. " Everything comes back
to that stinkin' flood. ... Yeah, if a guy could just go back and change
the clock a little bit ... a guy could have made some money this
year."
Even in parts of Norman and Clay counties where damage was the worst,
some farmers are enjoying respectable yields.
" Some of the beets, grain and beans are all looking very good in
the part of the county that did not get flooded, " said Randy Tufton,
director of the Farm Service Agency in Norman County. " I' m sure,
overall, our averages for the county will be over our five-year county
average. That' s not saying a lot, but at least it' s in the right
direction."
What the flooding means to Hest' s pocketbook won' t be clear until
harvest is done and Congress decides whether to send disaster aid.
At best, Hest said, he might break even, but only because of federal
subsidies and other programs already in place to help farmers weather the
downturn in crop prices in recent years. In the past two years, government
statistics show, Hest received about $41, 000 in crop-loss disaster
assistance alone.
" And I hate that, " he said. " We' re as heavily
dependent on Uncle Sam right now as any time since I' ve farmed. And that
takes a lot of the joy out of farming." |