photo by Hannah Reel

Curtis Ford bales hay in a field off of U.S. 84 West in Vidalia Friday afternoon. Ford said he was two days behind on harvesting the hay because it was too hot to work.

Lack of precipitation has left area farmers burning up

By Vershal Hogan (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Monday, June 29, 2009

VIDALIA — With the heat so hot it feels like it can take your breath away, humans aren’t the only ones who are thirsty.

The area’s crops and animals are as well.

The U.S. Drought Monitor says the area is “abnormally dry” — the least intense of its categories. But the situation is more than an academic discussion for local plant and animal producers.

The lack of water combined with the heat is, in the words of Concordia Parish LSU Agcenter Agent Glen Daniels, “devastating.”

“The corn is burning up, the soybeans are burning up and some of the cotton is blooming out on top, which is a sign it’s cutting out early,” Daniels said. “Even if we get rain today, we will still lose substantial yields.”

Late-planted crops like beans that were planted behind wheat likely won’t even be harvested, he said.

Farmers with the ability to irrigate aren’t hit as hard, but piping in all that water, approximately an inch of water per week, will hurt their bottom line when fuel costs for irrigation are considered.

“You can see the difference in their crop, but it is costly,” Daniels said.

And that’s something people are just going to have to live with, Adams County Extension Director David Carter said.

“There is no magic solution to deal (with the dry weather),” he said. “Either your water bill will be high, but if you have crops you have to consider which is worse, a high water bill or killing your crops.”

Meanwhile, producers also need to be aware of the needs of any animals they are raising.

That means providing shade for any livestock and making sure they have fresh, clean water, Carter said.

With the heat and lack of rain killing off pasture grass, farmers are having to resort to other feeding techniques.

“A lot of people are feeding hay already for horses, which is pretty unique,” Carter said. “If you don’t have any grass, you’re in trouble — your feed costs will go up or the quality of your animals will go down.”

The heat even has some producers rethinking when they work.

Hay harvester Curtis Ford said he had to take two days off last week because of the heat.

“It was so hot I didn’t want to deal with it,” Ford said.

What the area needs is a slow two-to-three inches of rain to penetrate the soil, Daniels said.

“We all need to pray for rain,” he said.