They won't know for sure until harvest , but farming officials are pegging the region's flood-related crop losses at 5 percent to 10 percent.

"You want to harvest as soon as possible when the water's off and the plant is mature and at a relative moisture of 25 percent to 27 percent," said Gene Matzat, who works in agricultural natural resources education with the Purdue Cooperative Extension, LaPorte County.

He said it's a catch-22 right now for region farmers faced with crop loss from heavy flooding earlier this month.

"If they harvest early, they won't be able to take advantage of a warm fall to dry out the crop," said Matzat, noting that heading into moist fields too soon means spending more money later to dry down the crop to the necessary 15 percent relative moisture.

Mark Wunderink, who farms 2,300 acres in south Lake County near Shelby and across the Kankakee River in north Newton County, said he has 300 acres that are a complete loss. He also was flooded in June.

"That's one of my fields there," Wunderink said last week as he drove past acres more closely resembling rice paddies than soybean fields.

How will he absorb the loss?

"Just like businesses do. There will be cutbacks," Wunderink said. "But this CEO doesn't make that much."

Just like retail storefronts in which owners have suffered flooding that has damaged inventories, Wunderink said a farm is a business with product that has been damaged.

"Insurance doesn't always cover it," he said.

In his case, what he will realize from claims for loss will not come close to his $50,000 annual crop insurance premium.

The hefty premium, in part, is the price Wunderink pays for the rich soil along the Kankakee River, and he's not complaining.

"When it's 100 degrees in August and everyone's praying for rain, I'm sitting pretty good," he said.

Matzat said it is still too early to know the extent of crop losses in LaPorte County where the most recent numbers from 2002 show 208,829 acres in harvested crops. The county covers a total of 382,872 acres.

"Our flood damage is confined to the area near the Kankakee River at this point," Matzat said.