LUCASVILLE — The wide, rich bottom land along the Scioto and Ohio rivers, where rich topsoil is deposited annually by the rising and falling of the rivers, produces some of the best corn and soybean yields in the nation. Farmers depend on it for a cash crop and for feed for their cattle.

This year, however, in what some farmers are saying is the wettest spring in 20 years, they are on standby for the rivers to recede and the ground to dry enough to plow or disk.

"The seed and fertilizer is ready, the tractors are waiting, we're ready to go when the weather lets us," said Mike Sheeter, coordinator on the farm operated by the Southern Ohio Correction Facility in the Scioto River bottoms south of Lucasville.

Last spring was just the opposite of this one, with conditions on the dry side. This year, river water has stood on the fields for weeks.

"Last year, we were finished getting crops in by May 9. It was a very good season," Sheeter said Friday.

May 10 is considered the cut-off date in Scioto County for getting corn planted in order to get a full yield in the fall.

"But we can go to the first of June and still get a good crop of corn," he said. "The later you go, of course, the less corn you get in the bins. After May 10 you start losing a certain amount of bushels per acre."

Natalie Lehner, spokeswoman for the Ohio Corn & Wheat Growers Association, said the optimum planting dates for corn in Ohio is April 20 until May 10. With good weather, farmers can get a full yield if it's in the ground then.

She said if it's much later that that, farmers have the option to switch to corn hybrids that take only 104 days for maturity, instead of some that take 112 or more days.

"Today's corn is more advanced than it was years ago," Sheeter said. "Sustainability is a lot better and it's able to stand in the field longer."

Sheeter said plans for the prison's 550 acres in the Scioto River bottoms call for planting half of it in corn and half of it in soybeans.

If the wet ground continues too long, later in the season he can decide to transition to all beans if necessary.

A little farther south along the Scioto, Mike Plummer, a farm hand on the Davis farm, had finished loading seed corn into a storage bin. The farm contains 1,200 acres all together but some of it is planted by other farmers. He said one farmer was in a portion of the bottoms on Friday and had disked and planted corn.

"He's planting a 114-day yield corn," Plummer said, meaning the crop should be ripe by mid-September.

Home gardeners were also running behind on getting their crops planted as rain has fallen on almost every day.

"The rainy weather has affected sales because everything is running behind," said Mike Flannery, a clerk at Portsmouth Feed and Supply. "Then when that sun came out last Saturday, we had a run on plants and seed."

Aaron Queen at Wright's Farm Center in Portsmouth said that when the sun shines business picks up.

"People are taking advantage of any little window of opportunity that comes along," said Tom Dalton of Dalton's Farm and Feed Supply in South Shore. "Business has been good the last couple of days as a lot of people are in their gardens. We've had people still trying to get potatoes out. Everything has just been postponed a little."

And for now, the bottom land corn and soybean farmers are just playing a waiting game as they keep a close eye on the sky.

G. SAM PIATT can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 236, or spiatt@heartlandpublications.com.