Farmers raise concern on their crops from recent heavy rainfalls
NOXUBEE/OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.
That’s been the case with recent rainfall and North Mississippi farms.
Plants need rain to grow, but too much can cause damage to those plants.
It can also keep farmers from getting into the fields.
Farmers deal with all sorts of variables when it comes to getting a crop from planting to harvest, but one of the most important – and least controllable – is the weather.
Ideally, you want a dry period to plant, followed by timely rain to help plants get established and grow.
But Mother Nature doesn’t always see it that way.
Farmers across North Mississippi have been experiencing some heavy, early-season rainfall.
Oktibbeha County Extension Service agent Cody Mills said that can cause some problems later on.
“Excess rain keeps your roots shallow, so when it does dry up, and we might go through a drought condition,” Mills said. “You have shallow roots, so they are not deep enough to really search for some moisture, so they will die out really quickly. On the other hand, when you have water standing in your soybeans, corn, cotton, or whatever, when your plants are sitting in standing water, that’s just a sure way it’s not going to do so well.”
Noxubee County farmer Jack Huerkamp said recent conditions aren’t ideal, but they aren’t unusual either.
It just changes the schedule.
“It’s really a big push when it rains that much and we don’t get in the field for a whole month which is exactly what it was,” Huerkamp said. “All of your work gets all kind of built up all at one time. It’s kind of nice to get a dry spell, do a little bit and get some rain then a dry spell then do a little bit. But, it’s not the first time and it won’t be the last time.”
Planning ahead can help limit the environmental concerns.
“We make sure everything is ready to go to the field,” Huerkamp said. “When we hit that dry day, we are not working on anything, we have all of our supplies in there ready to go and when we pull into the field. That’s really the only way you can do that.”
“Spraying for weeds and getting your herbicide applications out cause there are a lot of weeds that are popping up and guys can’t get in there and get those sprayed or get that fertilizer put out,” Mills said.
Business Wire reports that farmers lose thousands of dollars each year from weather-related losses.
