The flood surrounds the home on April 9, 2025, about a mile from the Obion River in Ridgeley, Tennessee, after 96 hours of heavy rain. (Photo: Cassandra Stephenson)
West Tennessee soybean farmers are already right behind a tough year. Flood in early April.
Lowland fields at Gina Ward near Rives and Obion River flooded in February, demanding that third generation farms make costly repairs to private banks attached to their land.
Just a few weeks later, most of the levee was washed away again with nearly record subsidence floods after rain soaked northwest Tennessee and its surrounding areas.
According to the US Army Corps of Engineers, the 96-hour rain event was the second-highest on the Obion, Forkdoka and the Rusa Hatchee River.
About ten days later, it left the craters and debris when the water finally began to retreat from Ward’s drowned field.
“It looks like the surface of the moon right now,” she said.
Soybeans cover more acres than any other row crop in Tennessee. University of Tennessee. This crop is most popular in the western and central regions of the state.
April usually marks the beginning of the planting season. Ward hadn’t planted her field yet. The storm began on April 3rd.However, she wants to get seeds on the ground as soon as possible to maximize her yield.
She began planting in the fields in the highlands. But the sandy moonscape left behind by flooding in lowland areas requires a lot of time and work before it is ready to be planted again, Ward said.
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The flood left deep ruts in parts of the lowland fields of Gina district in Obion County, near the Obion River. Ward said she was planning to plant soybeans on the land. (Photo: Gina Ward)
Water from the overflowing Obion River covers the field of Owl Foot Road, Ridgeley, Tennessee, on April 9, 2025. This field is about a mile away from the typical bank of the river. (Photo: Cassandra Stephenson)
The crater covered the surface of the fields in Gina district, Obion County, near the Obion River, after the flood recedes. (Photo: Gina Ward)
The farm equipment is seen partially submerged in a flooded field in Ridgeley, Tennessee on April 9, 2025 (Photo: Cassandra Stephenson)
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Stephen Maupin, Executive Director Tennessee Soybean Production Councilsaid most of the flooded land was not planted.
“People who farm that lowland ground know that it’s best to wait as long as possible to go outside the flood season before they start planting that ground,” he said.
However, floods can push back planting dates and reduce harvests.
“The traditional wisdom of any farming is to put your crops in early, and it would be a bit difficult to do that on hundreds of thousands of acres of these flood plains.
Field maintenance also proves expensive and time-consuming for farmers, where the fields are left with debris, covered with sediment or retracted floods.
These delays and additional costs exacerbate the losses seen by soybean farmers in 2024.
Soybean prices paid to Tennessee producers fell 16% in 2024 compared to 2023, while farmers plant about 15% of the area. University of Tennessee Agricultural Research Institute.
Like other businesses, farmers’ goal is to make a profit from their investments, and planting requires important capital up front, Maupin said. Profit ratios are thinned due to high interest rates and increased costs on fuels, fertilizers, pesticides, and more.
“Last year, they didn’t benefit from corn, wheat, soybeans or cotton. They lost a lot of money,” he said. “Prices and input costs aren’t that good this year, so we needed to be able to cut costs as much as possible. For those who farm in these flooded areas, we just have to spend money on putting the crops there.”
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