Drought distress continues. Some area farmers haven't seen a good measurable rainfall since almost Memorial day. Many are losing crops and money so they are forced to spend, supplementing what Mother Nature hasn't provided, using irrigation.
It's taking a lot to salvage the season. Farmers that have the systems have been running them possibly more than ever to keep up and, because of the drought, more farmers will likely be investing in irrigation.
"There's going to be a lot of acres of zero. A lot of acres didn't put an ear of corn on," said Rock Katschnig a farmer near Prophetstown, Illinois. He will be able to salvage some crops. With four separate irrigation systems he can reach about 500 acres, spraying about three quarters of an inch of water over the course of several days. It's just what the corn needs.
"An irrigator is certainly a good insurance policy to have when it doesn't rain," said Katschnig. This year he's run the irrigation systems more hours than ever in the several decades he's had them.
"I recall years here we haven't even pushed the button," said Katschnig, "We've been running irrigators very hard since the rain turned off."
The irrigators pull water from two wells on Katschnig's land. Two run on 480 volts of electricity. The others run on diesel fuel and so far this season Katschnig has used about 3,000 gallons. At about $3.50 a gallon right now that's about $10,500.
"It is expensive but we have no choice. We have to salvage the bushels we can to fill contracts we've pre-sold earlier in the year." He says the irrigators do end up paying for themselves. While many farmers say there's still hope for rain yet this growing season, Katschnig is already looking into adding two more irrigators to his land for next year. And he's not the only one.
"The cost of a well is about $20,000. The subsoil is so depleted right now we are having concerns about how we're going to raise a crop next year."
The USDA Census of Agriculture last compiled irrigation numbers in 2008. Then, there were 474,454 acres on about 2,388 farms in Illinois. In Iowa it was much less with about 189,518 acres irrigated on just over 1,287 farms. Over the next year the numbers are expected to be drastically higher.
