It will be a waiting game for local farmers whose crops were hit hard when recent heavy rains waterlogged the region.

"There are several hundred acres in the very southern part of the county underwater," Lake County Farm Bureau President Tom Keithley said.

The ripple effect of all the flooding eventually will be felt at the dinner table.

"This isn't only local. It's all over the Midwest," Keithley said of the recent heavy rains. "Eventually, it'll affect everyone."

The Herr Farm, which supplies tomatoes to Red Gold in Indiana and operates a farm stand, lost 85 acres of tomatoes after being flooded.

"I spent my birthday sandbagging. I want someone else to plan my birthday next year," said Carla Herr, who co-owns the Lowell farm with her husband, Jody.

"We do fresh market veggies," she said of the 2,000 acres they farm. "We lost some green beans, some varieties of peppers, but that's not a complete wipeout."

The watermelon and cantaloupe still were safely in the hothouse when the heavy rains came, she said. Their popular sweet corn yield was reduced, though, and they're waiting to see how much will survive.

"I had almost 6 inches (on June 5). It dumped a slug of water here," John Jurs said of his Hebron-area farmland along the Kankakee River. "I saw water standing where I've never seen it stand before."

He said his corn can't make it in those conditions.

"You would lose 10 to 12 bushels per acre if you would replant now," he said.

Keithley said he thinks it's almost too late to replant corn.

"We won't get a 100 percent yield now," he said, but added that farmers will be able to replant soybeans yet this month.

West Creek Township farmer Martin Krol works on 1,500 acres with sons Dave and Fred Krol.

"We've lost some, but some have lost more," Krol said. "We used a water pump. I've never seen that much water so fast."

Krol said they plan to replant the soybeans if the saturated soil will allow them access to their fields by June 25, what he considers to be the cutoff date.

Jeannine Scheeringa, a operator/owner of a Highland farm stand that's supplied with vegetables from the family's farms in Highland and Merrillville, said the rains have put some of their fields underwater.

"We're doing everything we can to dry them out," she said earlier this week. "We're definitely weeks behind in the planting and behind in spraying because of wind. But it's not the worst season. We still have the opportunity to save crops."