Farmers could face some set backs

MACON, Miss. (WCBI)- Planting season is just around the corner for area farmers.

That means getting all their equipment up and running and getting fields ready.

But the recent rains could be putting everything on hold.

It’s been a wet winter. And those heavy rains and flooding have left behind soggy fields.

But farmers started feeling the effects early on.

“We were put out in the fall early. We didn’t get done what we wanted to do. We have some fields that will end up being no-till. We didn’t quite finish a lot of ditch work that we do in the fall after crop comes off we didn’t do maybe a little land leveling such as that we didn’t get any of that kind of stuff done,” said farmer Jack Huerkamp.

Flooding in many counties left some farmland completely underwater.

Many farmers had winter crops, or cover crops, in those fields.

“We were a little delayed getting them in, and then we just haven’t gotten good growth off of them because of the wet weather that’s just sat and saturated just like a summer crop would do the same thing if you wet it doesn’t grow. We haven’t a got the growth that we would’ve liked to of gotten off of them so our erosion’s little bit higher than I’d like to see with the amount of rain we’ve gotten and that’s one of the biggest impacts. We’ve had so much rain this winter. I really feel like I’ve had more erosion this winter that I have in the last four or five years totally added up,” said Huerkamp.

And it’s not just raw crops.

“It’s been a tough year for livestock farmers because it’s so wet and they go in and out of pastures, and they’re really destroying some of their pastures because they have to feed and it makes it tougher on them to go in. There’s a lot of things roads were having issues with, roads washing, culverts washing out. The livestock guys just like the everybody else they’re having issues with wet feet,” said Regional Extension Specialist at MSU Extension, Dennis Reginelli.

Reginelli said the good thing is it isn’t time to plant corn yet. He hopes to have a week or two with little to no rain at the end of March so farmers can get their crop in the ground.

Categories: Local News

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