Small Town News

Crop damage persists despite downpours

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Milton farmer Jeff Wells looked out on his 6,000 acres of field corn, soybeans, wheat and barley. Of all his crops, field corn is in the worst shape, he said.

Last week, a heat wave caused record-breaking temperatures and scorched about 3,000 acres - mostly nonirrigated field corn, he said.

"The blades are burnt. The leaves are burnt Instead of being green at the bottom, it's brown," he said of his corn.

Wells said in his 50-plus years as a farmer, he's never seen damage from hot weather as bad as this.

"Every year you have a dry spell but this year it's about as hot and dry as I've ever seen it," he said.

"They don't look too spiffy. There's not anything anyone can do about it It's kind of early to tell, but the rain will help - a little," he said.

Last week, Secretary of Agriculture Ed Kee said 16,000 of the 50,000 acres of nonirrigated field corn in Sussex County are likely to die, but the county's 100,000 acres of irrigated corn should be fine.

This week's short and sporadic downpours provided little relief to early-planted corn, said Kee.

"I've gotten reports that there're varying levels of rain around the county, but the rain should not be looked at as a savior for corn crops," he said

Kee said early-planted corn - planted between April 15 and May 1 - was damaged significantly. "Early-planted corn goes into tassling and silking, which is the reproductive stage of the corn that was hurt because of the dry weather and high temperatures," he said

Corn planted after May 1 should fare better, said Kee. The rain should help corn planted later, and soybeans should be OK, he said.

"The rain is reahy helpful to soybeans. Now they can germinate, grow and get off to a better start than the corn," said Kee.

For Wells, the rain is too little, too late.

"The rain will help, but we'll need more in another week. It's so dry," said Wells.

The majority of his field corn was planted early, he said. Wheat, he said, escaped the heat because it was already harvested. Still, a wet winter hindered some growth, he said.

At least for now, Wells' soybeans seem to be able to recover.

"I don't think we've got any soybeans hurt by the dry weather yet," said Wells.

Kee said time would tell how much damage crops would continue to face. He said in August, federal subsidies might help farmers a bit

"It's too early to talk about. Documentation and surveying happens in August Those programs, if any, will be announced to farmers," said Kee.

For Wells, crop insurance should help, but not enough

"We carry crop insurance on our acres to help pay the bills, but there'll be no profit" he said

"Everybody's pretty much in the same boat as far as I know. Now there are a lot of lima beans that are dry. The trouble is, farmers planted it when it was dry. Now, we're all waiting for moisture," he said





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