By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
It’s a waiting game for Lonoke County farmers and others following heavy rains, according to County Agricultural Extension Chief Keith Perkins, and there’s more rain on the horizon, he said Tuesday.
“We still have standing water on corn, rice and soybean acres,” he said.
It’s not a good situation. Corn and soybeans can handle 24 to 48 hours under water, then they’re dead.
Rice can tolerate the standing water, but on some farms, the levees have washed out and need rebuilding.
If the corn and soybean plants are dead, those fields need to be replanted, but there are restrictions on herbicide use.
Perkins said the rain expected Wednesday or Thursday shouldn’t be as heavy, but with the fields already saturated and streams and bayous full to capacity, it wouldn’t take much additional precipitation to cause trouble.
Plus there’s still water coming down from the north, although that would mostly affect the farmers along the Arkansas and White rivers, Perkins said.
