Farmers and Flood Water. Say it Ain't So

Did you get up this morning with water in places you don't normally have it? Do you have flood water in your basement, back yard or pasture that never used to accumulate there? Gee, have YOU changed anything? Or are the floods becoming more frequent from something that someone else is or isn't doing? While there are many reasons that water runoff and floods happen. This article deals with farmers and floods.

There have always been floods. There have always been farmers raising crops. But in the last few years I have noticed that farmers seem to be adding to flood problems. I see it all around me and wonder why no one seems to care. Big government is in everything else about farming, why not this? If there are rules about row cropping land that is better suited for pasture or hay, are they being enforced?

With the corn "maddness", comes the flood water. Pasture and hay ground has been tilled under for row crops. This ground is usually rolling hills or low ground. Whats a farmer to do? Well, IF you must row crop this ground, plant grass water ways. Farmers always used to do that. Now, farmers till up what was water ways and nothing is left to catch the water. Nothing but the creeks, rivers, the neighbors yard and your house. OR, they tile. Tile runs the water to creeks and rivers. And the volume of water is astronomical coming out of these tiles.

The picture above is from 1 and 1/10 inch of rain. The guy has a tile that is broken and the water sits. This is one little patch of ground. And not what we would call a gully washer of a rain. Now take this times millions of "small patches of ground". Think it could add up to flood water? It does. In the old days, this piece of ground would have been seeded with grass or hay. The ground is low here due to coming off of a small hill. Aerial photos from the 1930s show this exact spot flooded.

This fellow is not alone. And there are much worse instances. The ones where you drive by and see no water ways and huge erosion places in fields. Can you say "muddy" flood waters? Around here you can see ditches full of mud from fields. Can you say erosion?

I've been in farming and farming connected work all my life. I've never seen farming practices as bad as the last five or so years. Around here, even bad ground (similar to the picture) goes for $4000.00 plus an acre. Farmers can tell you how many cornstalks and bushels are in that flooded piece. What does it matter if it floods? Do you get to turn it into the insurance company? Doesn't farming a piece of ground that naturally sheds water in the above fashion tell you something is wrong?

Farmers and flood water. It's becoming clear that there is something to it. Farmers of old would call this a greed problem and would have belittled those practicing this kind of "farming". They took pride in their crops, their ground and how they took care of the land. Now, its rip it up, tile it, and get whatever you can from the land. Spray it, over work it, just give me the money.

I've never heard a farmer say that they contribute to erosion or flood water. I guess it would be kind of embarrassing to own up to. Don't take my word on the farmers and flood water. Just take a drive out through the country side. Don't get me wrong. There are still responsible farmers that do use grass waterways. They are becoming fewer and farther between though.

Maybe in passing along the land, the farmers of old forgot to pass along how valuable land is. Not in the monetary sense. But valuable because farmers are charged with taking care of the land. nurturing it like it was a child. Loving it. I remember my grandfather and other older farmers always bending down to scoop up a handful of earth. They ran it through their fingers. They tasted it. They simply loved and cherished it. I think farmers of old just naturally thought the love and the well being towards their land would always be a part of farming. It is not. A young farmer recently thought I was crazy when talking about the land. Small piece that it is, I love our acreage. I understand smelling it and taking care of it.

Farmers and flood water. What does it take to get back to loving the land?