Corn farmers eager for heavy rainfall

[June 21, 2007]  CHAMPAIGN (AP) -- The wall calendar John Olsson uses to record key events on his farm reminds him of the last time a serious rain fell: the week at the end of April when he was planting his corn. Now, after weeks of dry heat, Olsson and other farmers in central Illinois say their corn could use a good shower or two. Olsson has about 650 acres of corn just west of Springfield, near the small town of New Berlin.

"It was a little on the wet side there right at planting," he recalled of the April showers. "Then it just cut off."

Since May 1, rainfall over much of Illinois has been measured in mere tenths of inches, leaving corn little moisture other than what's stored in the soil.

Many areas are 3 to 4 inches below normal, National Weather Service meteorologist James Auten said. Urbana is more than 6 inches low.

Corn is at a critical stage, said Emerson Nafziger, a crop-production specialist at the University of Illinois. Pollination should begin in most Illinois corn next week, and the plants need lots of water for successful pollination, he said.

In the past four weeks, the lack of rain has robbed Illinois corn of some of its potential, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

On May 20, the USDA reported that a healthy 69 percent of the crop was in good or excellent condition. This week the agency said the figure had dropped to 56 percent.

Illinois bet big on corn this year, with the state's farmers planting a record 12.9 million acres because of demand driven in large part by increased production of the fuel additive ethanol.

Their counterparts across the Corn Belt made similar bets, and big corn states east of Illinois -- like Indiana and Ohio -- also have been dry the past few weeks.

Justin King, who has more than 500 acres of corn on his farm near New Berlin, said the plants' leaves are rolling up because of the lack of rain. He said they often do that during the day to preserve moisture while the sun is out.

But the leaves on his plants are staying rolled up at night.

"If we don't get more than a half an inch of rain -- in my opinion -- over the next three weeks, we've lost half the yield," he said.

[Associated Press]