Crops suffer from excessive rain

LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss.  (WCBI) – There’s still water standing in some local fields.

That’s a challenge for farmers. It takes corn and soybeans around 60 days to grow. But the sun and mild temperatures are in short supply.

And what happens next in the fields may shape your summer grocery budget. When farmers face drought or pests or floods, it can mean starting over with planting, or not planting again.

Either way, crops grown out of a severe weather spring will cost all of us. Crops need water to grow. But too much can be a big problem.

Over the past few weeks, this corn crop has suffered. Heavy rains washed some seeds up and out.

Farmer Lamarcus Phillips said that kind of weather has taken a toll on his fields.

“We done took on about 12 inches of rain but, you know, that’s something that we can’t control. But it’s gone delay for us making decisions what to replant, how to replant and what to do about planting beans and stuff like that. But it’s still early so whenever the weather presents itself we’ll regroup and go back and do what we have to do,” said Phillips.

Slow growth is most often the outcome of excessive water. When the crop does grow, it’s not sprouting as it should.

And, when a plant has a distinct yellow color, Phillips said it means too much water is seeping in the soil.

“When you have to replant and delay planting, it puts you away from the ideal time for the  maturity of these crops. Most of these budgets were formed on that original crop. If we were planting corn, that budget is formed. If we have to go back in and put some more inputs in that’s taking away from your profit,”said Reginelli.

So, farmers have to pass that cost along. That means prices at the farmers markets may be a little higher that you’re used to.

Reginelli said delayed planting and harvesting tends to affect the product itself.

“That will influence the overall quality that you bring to the farmers market. And the farmers market rely on these good growers to come. We’ll end up having an influence on what we sell up to the farmers market as far as quality,” said Reginelli.

Phillips said the lower level crop fields tend to experience the most damage.