All the recent rain is becoming too much of a good thing for some area crops.

Farmer Justin Kleffner, of Parkville, Mo., found himself cutting a ditch to let water out of a corn field east of Lawrence on Friday, June 5, 2015. Recent heavy rains in the Lawrence area have saturated the soil.

Saturated soil and shallow root systems mean plants get less of the oxygen and nutrients they need to grow, explained Kermit Kalb, who grows corn, soybeans and wheat on his farm 3 miles east of Baldwin City.

Some corn, which right now should be deep green, is turning yellow as a result, Kalb said.

“When it’s yellow, it’s not growing,” he explained.

But Kalb said the majority of his crops are still doing fine, with only about 30 percent of his corn turning yellow.

The saturated soil also is affecting soybeans, which are usually planted throughout May and early June, said Roberta Wyckoff, agriculture and natural resources agent for the Douglas County Extension Project.

“Until it dries up enough, farmers can’t get in the field to plant,” she said.

While there aren’t precise numbers for Douglas County, Wyckoff said about 10 percent to 15 percent of farmers statewide have gotten their soybeans planted, compared to about 80 percent or 90 percent normally.

Kalb said his fields have indeed been too wet to plant.

“They’re still in the sack,” he said of his soybeans.

Though Kalb said that while the ample rainfall has had some negative effects, it’s nothing the agricultural community hasn’t lived through before.

“People in agriculture know how to cope with it, work around it,” he said.

Kalb said he plans to rent an extra planter to get the soybean planting done faster owing to the smaller window.

As far as wheat, which is harvested in late June, the main concern associated with the excess moisture is bacterial growth, Wyckoff said, but if caught early on it can be managed with fungicide.

While instances of yellow corn and bacterial growth in wheat are higher than average, the general outlook depends on the weather in the coming weeks, Wyckoff said.

“If the rain stops and we get some warm weather with some windy days, that wind will really help to dry some things up,” she said.