Farmer plants knowing levees won’t be fixed

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Farmer plants knowing levees won’t be fixed

A central Missouri farmer has started planting corn knowing that all the broken levees that flooded his field last year won’t be fixed.

Jay Fischer farms in three levee districts and says he knows for certain that one of the levees won’t be fixed for this growing season. He tells Brownfield Ag News, “If they would be working on it by the end of the year that would probably be the best case scenario. The other two, I’m hoping we can at least get the holes in the levee, at least get them plugged, best case scenario maybe by June or July.”

Fischer says the flooding Missouri River broke those levees last year and spilled onto most of his fields.

“We got about 500 acres of corn planted but we never planted a bean and we never finished the corn.”

Fisher’s total bean crop and one third of his corn was prevent plant in 2019. The Missouri River is at risk of flooding again this year. He farms north of Jefferson City and is vice president of the Missouri Corn Growers Association.

^Interview with Jay Fischer 4/7/2020^