Illinois Farmers Want Relief

Jul. 26–PEORIA — It’s not just a case of looking for rain anymore. Now Illinois farmers are looking for relief.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich requested Monday that federal disaster assistance be made available for drought-stricken farmers in the state. Blagojevich, who is expected to tour a Peoria County farm on Wednesday, asked for all 102 Illinois counties to be declared natural disaster areas.

If approved, it will qualify farmers for USDA assistance programs, including low-interest emergency loans.

Recent hot weather — where temperatures reached 100 degrees or more in many parts of the state — has intensified damage to the state’s stricken corn crop, said Patrick Kirchhofer, manager of the Peoria County Farm Bureau.

“Every day it’s dry reduces (corn) yields,” he said.

Along with stressing corn plants, the dry soil conditions also means more damage from pests like corn rootworm. Root damage caused by insects makes it even harder for plants to absorb the moisture and nutrients they need, said Kirchhofer.

Area farmers reported continuing signs of trouble in their corn fields.

“The corn has deteriorated a lot in the last week,” said Milton Smith of Princeville. “We’re seeing some discoloration. That’s not a good sign.” Smith was also less than optimistic about his soybean crop. “The beans are wilting, plus we’ve got a lot of problems with spider mites and aphids,” he said.

Dennis Worsfold reported similar problems on his Trivoli farm. “We’re losing kernel count and test weight, plus, in some cases, the corn plant is firing at the bottom. That means it’s dying,” he said.

Worsfold recalled other droughts that battered the state — in 1983 and 1988. “Two more weeks of this (dry weather) and this year will the worst ever,” he said.

Even the rains forecast for this week aren’t likely to salvage a bad season, said Worsfold. “One or two inches of rain aren’t going to do much for us now,” he said.

Only 8.5 inches of rain fell in Illinois from March through June, making it the third driest season since weather records were first kept in 1895.

Topsoil moisture in Illinois is rated 68 percent very short, 28 percent short and just 6 percent adequate, according to the Illinois Agricultural Statistics Service report released Monday. Conditions are most critical in north central Illinois. The region, framed by the cities of Bloomington, Peoria, Rockford and DeKalb, consists of some of the state’s most fertile farmland, including four of its top six crop-producing counties.

Federal disaster declarations are not uncommon in Illinois. In 2004, 42 counties in southern Illinois were considered a disaster area due to drought-related soybean losses.

This year’s disaster application is considered the largest since 1988 when drought conditions racked the state, said farm bureau officials. While the previous drought touched a number of Midwestern states, “This year the bullseye of the drought is on Illinois,” said Dennis Vercler, spokesman for the Illinois Farm Bureau in Bloomington.

Although Illinois is the hardest hit of the states making up the Corn Belt, drought conditions throughout the area have lowered national crop estimates for this year.

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