The stubble fire: It's a scorcher
Not too many controlled burns get out of control, area officials say
By JENNIFER WILSON
News editor
When you see the gray clouds of smoke rising across the horizon and step on the crunchy black straw that used to be stubble, you know it's time — time for farmers to burn their wheat stubble.
And with so many Marion County farmers sending up smoke signals lately, you may wonder if many of them rage out of control.
That's not the case, say local sheriff's and fire officials.
Overall it's been a pretty typical burning season, according to dispatcher Jenny Creamer.
She would know: All farmers are required to call her office first before setting a pasture fire, according to a county resolution.
Creamer finds out who will be burning and what they'll be burning, where the fire will be, and how many acres the fire involves.
Next, the dispatcher sends out the information over the scanner frequencies to the nearest fire department, she said. The fires are called "controlled burns."
Farmers have been pretty active lately in burning off their fields, but the activity varies according to the day's weather, Creamer said.
"It goes in spurts," she said.
That's because farmers can't just set fire to their wheat stubble — or corn or milo — unless the conditions are right.
According to county resolution 96-7, which was passed in March of 1996, burns can't take place when the wind is blowing at less than 5 miles per hour or more than 20 miles per hour. The fire needs to be supervised at all times, and it can't create a traffic hazard where smoke might obscure a road.
The resolution also says that the farmer must notify the 911 dispatch before starting to burn stubble as well as all neighbors in a half-mile radius.
Violate these regulations and you could face a fine.
One group especially concerned that farmers follow controlled-burn regulations is the Marion County Fire Chiefs Association.
Lester Kaiser, president of the group and the fire chief of Lincolnville, said that farmers have done a good job this year.
"Farmers are much better about calling (dispatch)," he said.
When they call, the dispatcher can advise them on the latest weather condition. He or she knows if it's a "high-index" day with high winds and low humidity, Kaiser said.
The number of burns that have gotten out of control this year is "no more than usual," he said. But he recommends that farmers have a way to extinguish the fire if it were to get out of the designated area.
So why do many farmers choose to burn the stubble of crops?
Burning off that stubble makes the ground much easier to plow for the next planting, according to Rickey Roberts of the Marion County extension office. That's with the basic tillage method of farming.
Also, some diseases such as tanspot can develop in the straw that lies on the ground after harvest, Roberts said. Burning that straw eliminates the potential for those diseases.
To keep the fire from raging out of control, farmers normally plow a "border" around the fields — usually a couple plow-widths across, he said.
But conditions really haven't been dry enough to see many fire mishaps.
"I don't think it's too bad," Roberts said. "We're still green enough."
