NEAR SLOAN, Iowa (KTIV) -
Last summer's floods left many farmers without large portions of their land. However, the mild winter weather allowed some to keep working the soil and prepare it for a new crop.
The Murdocks, who farm near Sloan, Iowa, are getting their fields ready for planting. But this year, is different.
"The flood ended in September, but the ramifications of the flood are not over for anybody that lives along the Missouri River," said Jo Murdock.
The record river flood submerged the family farm. Nearly 90 percent of their land was underwater. Fish were swimming where corn would have been growing. While they waited for the water to drop, they feared what they'd find underneath.
River silt replaced acres of fertile top soil. They've spent months trying to level the land.
Since October, the Murdocks have been using this soil mover and this leveler pretty much every day to fill in the craters left behind by the flood.
"I took a lot of dirt to fill that thing back in, as did the others," said Rob Murdock.
From sun-up to sundown, Rob Murdock worked to create a drainage path for the water to leave the land and join the river once again.
"I can't tell you on this side how many trips I made from one end back up here and it was just endless," said Rob Murdock.
They couldn't even reach some of their farm land until recently. More ditches need to be dug, fencing and irrigation systems replaced need to be replaced, too. That's not all that's on their list.
"We have probably every weed out here that's known to man now, where we had the weed control under control," said Jo Murdock.
But hard work means progress. Slowly, but surely, things are starting to get back to normal.
The Murdocks have submitted paperwork to get reimbursed for their damages, but they've been waiting since September for that money to come in.
"As far as the land itself, we've got her, due to the extra time we had in the fall, we got it back in as good a shape as could be, to what it was before" said Rob Murdock.
A time when corn and beans brought bumper crops, and hopefully will again. They're hoping that's the case this year.
