Crop Damage

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It could take weeks before Josh Glendenning will know if his corn is usuable. Flood waters spilled through his family's hundred acre farm, submerging about a quarter of their crop. While the outcome won't be known until next month's harvest, Glendenning remains hopeful.

"The corn was already mature and pollinated and everything so I think it's not gonna be as bad as you might think," he says.

Fortunately, the stalks weren't completely under water, just the corn. Glendenning expects a lot of it to have mold, which he says is alright since his family sells it to make ethanol and not feed. But for other farmers, too much mold could ruin this year's harvest.

"Some of the stalks have been weakened not only by insects but by the amount of moisture we've had so it's possible if we get a strong wind this corn might go down," Winnebago County Farm Bureau Manager Roger Christin.

Christin says the soy bean harvest may be worse than corn because soy beans are lower to the ground. Flood waters also get more mud in them and soy beans are less likely to recover. While this will greatly effect individual farmers, Christian says soy beans are a small portion of our local crop.

The Farm Bureau says they've had a handful of farmers come forward with flood damage. Christin says if the crop is completely underwater, there's a good chance it's a total loss. Soy bean harvest starts by the end of the month and corn starts in October
