North Dakota, Submerged
Photojournalism and Drone/Aerials | Bloomberg News | Wimbledon, North Dakota
North Dakota, which provides crucial export supplies for terminals along the West Coast, is the epicenter of US planting woes.
Some farmers, like Sherlock, simply had to stop planting, with the goal of obtaining “prevent plant” crop insurance compensation. Others shifted from corn to soybeans, which can be sown later in the season. For the crops that did get seeded, the spring delays can continue to cause problems as the growing season continues.
For Sherlock, like most of America’s farmers, crazy weather isn’t anything new.
His North Dakota farm gets so much excess water every spring that the area his farm is in has been dubbed the “Prairie Potholes” for the puddles that form in the middle of fields. But this year has been exceptional. The deluge was so intense floodwaters submerged acre after acre. Forget puddles. This spring, the rains were so hard it was more like his farm got dotted with miniature lakes.
