The Associated Press
BISMARCK -- Farmers say corn is tough, and they still expect a record crop despite recent storm damage.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture late last month estimated the 2007 corn crop in North Dakota at 2.5 million acres, up 48 percent from last year and the highest level since records began in 1929.
The estimate was based on farmer surveys conducted in early June -- around the same time many farmers in North Dakota's corn country were reseeding parts of fields that drowned out after torrential rainfall.
Wallie Hardie, who farms near Fairmount in southeastern North Dakota, said he spent about five days reseeding low areas in his fields that were flooded out, with a corn variety that doesn't take as long to mature.
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"There won't be a lot of production in those potholes, but it'll be something," he said.
Hardie estimated he got an entire year's worth of rain on his farm during the planting season.
"It went from being very wet to very dry," Hardie said Monday. A storm that hit the southeast part of the state on Sunday brought about a half-inch of much-needed moisture to his fields, he said.
"The rain was light enough to where it was welcome," Hardie said.
Other farmers reported they lost fields to rain and hail.
Larimore farmer Jay Nissen, president of the North Dakota Corn Growers Association, said corn in a few fields in the northeastern part of the state rotted in the ground -- something he hasn't seen in decades.
"Corn is tough," he said. "I've seen some really (bad) ground, but it would always get out" of the soil.
Nissen and Hardie said some farmers reseeded areas of fields not just once but twice. They believe the USDA estimate still is accurate, despite the weather woes.
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"It probably is as good of a number as we've got to work with right now," Hardie said. "Even corn that really looked rough two, three weeks ago has started to recover."
The booming demand for corn is attributed mainly to rising production of corn-based ethanol fuel. Farmers nationwide planted an estimated 92.9 million acres of corn this year, up 19 percent from 2006, USDA said.
While last month's U.S. figure was well above an earlier government estimate, the North Dakota number was down slightly from the March projection.
"With the wet weather in the southeast, I think it's pretty good that we held where we were," Nissen said.
