The Cache River is a tributary of the White River in northeastern Arkansas and flows into the White River below Clarendon, Arkansas. "It doesn't take much rain for the Cache to flood," said Joe Christian, Jonesboro, Arkansas. "But the past few weeks, we have had 10 to 20 inches of rain, which has caused fields of freshly planted rice and soybeans to flood and continue to sit in water. It could be three weeks before this water recedes as more rain is forecast."

Christian said, "About half of my ground is in the Cache River bottoms. We had hoped to plant 1,000 acres of rice and about that many soybeans; but it is doubtful that we will get all the rice planted."

"We had already planted 55 acres of rice, and it has been in water almost two weeks. It can stand some water; just don't know how long. We had also planted 100 acres of soybeans, and they have been in water just as long and they are done for."

The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture (UADA), in an April 15 press release, estimated crop-related flood damage in Arkansas so far to be a conservative $78.9 million; and agronomists and economists warn additional acres may be flooded as water moves downstream. The estimate said, of the 839,798 acres reported planted as of April 7, 31% were reported as flooded.

UADA added that rice accounted for most of the flooded acreage at 46%, soybeans were next at 30%, corn was at 23% and winter wheat at 1% of the crops affected.

Jarrod Hardke, extension rice agronomist for UADA said, "As for a rice redo, we know we have a ton of levee damage and impacts. Tearing down and rebuilding damaged levees -- that's a substantial investment of time and money. There is actually a little bit of replant seed available; seed that was deliberately held back for that purpose. But it's going to be hit-or-miss depending on the type of rice they need."

The Division of Agriculture will conduct additional surveys to further refine the damage estimate.

THE FORGOTTEN CACHE RIVER

Christian said the Cache is the "forgotten river" in Arkansas, and probably one of the most politicized rivers in America.

"The Cache is said to have the most continuous hardwood trees in the lower 48 states," said Christian. "In the late 1960s, they started dredging the river from where it flows into the White River north because of flooding, and they cleaned out seven miles before getting stopped by Ducks Unlimited and other environmental groups and it is now called the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge. To this day, the lower Cache has not changed."

"On the upper Cache from a town called Grubbs (which Christian farms just north of), it's been cleaned out and maintained by local Drainage Districts for about 50 miles to the mouth. So, the water comes down to Grubbs and has nowhere to go, but it backs up on about 100,000 acres of farmland during a big flood. On the lower Cache, the water just stands on the hardwood timber for much of the year. Now that it's a national refuge, we cannot clean the river out, even though it's killing a lot of the timber because water stands on it too long. So basically, this is a manmade problem that's affecting a lot of people's livelihoods that could be solved with some compromise from all sides."

Christian added, "I have been to Washington, and I still talk to my current U.S. Congressman, Rick Crawford. There is a way to clean out the river and go around the refuge, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other environmental groups won't sit down and talk to us."

Link to the UADA press release with findings on the flood damage: https://www.uaex.uada.edu/…

Mary Kennedy can be reached at mary.kennedy@dtn.com

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