By TIM ALEXANDER

Illinois Correspondent

PEORIA, Ill. — In a scene from a Dickens novel, wet, heavy snowflakes and a fresh blanket of snow greeted those waking early in parts of Illinois, northwestern Indiana, and Michigan on Sunday. Up to 3 inches of snow fell in Peoria County, which was one of many Illinois counties placed under a “winter” weather advisory by the National Weather Service (NWS) that morning.

The advisory came on the 25th full day of spring, which has already been a season characterized by flooding along the upper Mississippi River and many of its tributaries, partially due to late-melting heavy snowpack runoff from a wet El Nino winter. The flooding has been especially intense in eastern Iowa along the Mississippi, where reported agricultural losses have included cropland, pasture, livestock, machinery, outbuildings, and stored grain.

Consequently, the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) opened signup for the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) beginning April 15 for farmers in Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Monona, Pottawattamie, and Woodbury counties in Iowa. The approved ECP practices under the authorization include debris removal, fencing replacement and repair, grading, shaping and leveling of impacted fields, and conservation structure rehabilitation.

This announcement came nine days after the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) urged lawmakers to set aside political concerns and prioritize a disaster relief bill for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities.

“Farms and ranches across the country have endured an incredibly difficult year in 2018 and the trend continues in 2019 with historic hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and wildfires. Losses total more than $8 billion, and the full impact of recent flooding in the Midwest is still being assessed,” said AFBF President Zippy Duvall.

Flooding on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers ranged from minor to major going into last weekend, according to an April 12 update by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rock Island (Ill.) District. Minor to major flooding was present on the Mississippi River from Dubuque, Iowa, downstream, according to the Corps, while minor to moderate flooding persisted along the Illinois from Havana to the LaGrange Lock and Dam.

“Stages will remain high, and be above flood levels at several locations beyond the forecast period,” noted Corps personnel on the its District website. “Additional rises are (anticipated) due to the forecasted precipitation.”

That forecast called for a potential of up to 1 inch of rain or snow across the Rock Island District, which comprises parts of Illinois and southern Iowa. Sunday’s surprising sleet and snowfall, which easily outpaced the inch predicted by the NWS for the weekend, came on the heels of rainfall measuring between 0.5-1 inch along the Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois borders in the upper Mississippi River Valley late last week.

While the LaGrange Lock and Dam and all others on the Illinois River remained open as of April 12, only two of 12 locks on the upper Mississippi were reported open by the Rock Island District.

April showers – rain, sleet, and snow – followed the sixth-wettest winter on record in Illinois. March precipitation averaged 4.6 inches in Illinois, 1.2 above normal, according to the Illinois State Water Survey (ISWS).

“Above-average March wetness led to precipitation anomalies over 100 percent of average for the southern two-thirds of the state, with the most impressive anomalies of 200 to 300 percent above average in a large area of central Illinois,” stated ISWS.

Sunday’s latest round of precipitation means that Iowa, Illinois, and other Corn Belt farmers will have to be a little more flexible in their spring field preparation and planting. While the urge to plant may be strong for many, soil health experts are cautioning growers to remain patient and let wet fields lie.

“Although there is much truth to the hype surrounding the yield advantages derived from planting soybeans much earlier than historic norms, it is critical that soil conditions are favorable before planting,” advised Jason Carr, crop science technology representative for Bayer, in the Illinois Soybean Assoc. ILSoyAdvisor.com blog.

“Planting into wet soils can result in compaction, improper seed spacing, and reduced stands.”

Illinois farmers should not hit the panic button if they don’t have any crops in the ground, according to USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Illinois State Statistician Mark Schluesener.

“It’s quite common to have little or no corn planted in Illinois in early April, and fairly common to see that in the middle of April, too,” he noted. “The numbers can jump a lot from one week to the next.”

Indeed, NASS records confirm that on or around April 7, 2018, no corn had been planted in Illinois. Three weeks later, just 32 percent had been planted. But in 2012, 17 percent of the state’s corn had been planted by April 7.

The percentage planted increased to 41 percent the following week, and to 59 percent the week after. By the end of April 2012, 79 percent of corn had been planted in Illinois.

In 2010, 94 percent of corn had been planted by Illinois farmers before the end of April, according to NASS records. Growers will be greatly challenged to plant anywhere near that percentage of corn by May 1 this year; the April 7 NASS Illinois Crop Progress report did not yet include corn planting data.