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Northern Missouri farmer compares drought to 2012

A northern Missouri farmer says current drought conditions are as bad as 2012.

Sean Cornelius of Caldwell County says conditions are taking their toll on his dairy herd and 1200 acres of row crops.

“Boy, they are really rough. Corn, I would say most fields…I’m going to call them a failure.”

On the other hand, Cornelius tells Brownfield that soybeans look better than he expected.

“It’s going to be a funny maturity come harvest time, but as far as plant health they actually look okay for now.”

He says his area has been severely dry since late May, but a lack of precipitation tracks back to last winter. Seven tenths of an inch of rain last week is the first they’ve had in two months.

Cornelius tells Brownfield his first grass hay cut was 60% of normal and the second cut looks nonexistent at this point.

He says his wife bought a new lawnmower this year and they have only used it twice this summer.

“It looks like we’ve had a nice brown yard, since the tail end of May.”

To combat these conditions, Cornelius says he’s draining a lagoon onto his fields for moisture and fertilizer and chopping his entire corn crop into silage this week for winter cattle feed.  He says he is fortunate to have a reliable well, but a nearby produce farmer is pumping water from more than three miles away.