Typically, plentiful rain means a plentiful harvest: a good thing for a crop of vegetables. But this year the rain has worn out its welcome with everyone in the state — especially farmers.
Commercial crops grown in Clark County mostly consist of rice, soybeans and some corn. Though the county is “not a big player” on the spectrum of the state agriculture economy (most of what is grown here is shipped to England, Stuttgart or Pine Bluff), local farmers’ pocketbooks may be in a pinch if there is not at least one week of dry, sunny weather.
“The rainfall is hurting everybody throughout the state,” Jerry Clemons, county extension agent for the U of A Division of Agriculture, said Tuesday. The effect of the year’s torrential rainfall — 84.7 total inches, according to the National Weather Service — will be a “big” one on farmers, Clemons said. Heavy rainfall in the spring affected this year’s harvest, delaying when farmers were able to plant crops. Now that the crops are ready for harvest, another wave of seemingly never-ending rainfall has kept farmers out of their fields, as the combines used to harvest are so heavy that they would only sink into the now-muddy ground. Winter wheat is a crop that should be planted now; but if the farmers can’t get other crops harvested first, it may be too late for the wheat.
“They’re trying to get in there and harvest,” Clemons said of farmers who have a couple days of dry weather. “It’s going to have to stay dry four or five days before they can get a combine in a field.”
So what’s left in the fields for farmers to harvest? Clemons said the local corn yield is “way off” because the wet spring delayed the planting of the corn. On a typical year in Clark County there will be 1,500-2,000 acres of corn planted. This year, “I don’t think they even planted 500 (acres).” There is one 100-acre field of corn left to harvest.
Farmers were having a “pretty good growing year for rice,” until now. There were more than 3,000 acres of rice planted this year, which is “pretty close to normal” in the county. The crops “turned out good,” and even the wet July did not hurt the rice crops since farmers did not have to irrigate as much water as they normally would. “Now, (the rain) is getting to be a problem.” Clemons said he knows of one farmer who has 120 acres left to harvest, but cannot because it is “so wet.” There has been a reduction in yield with some plants, according to Clemons, because the plants are shattering. “In other words, the seed falls out of the seedhead and to the ground. The rice is falling to the ground.” Other yields are up because some farmers planted a hybrid variety of rice that is more hardy than others.
Some late soybeans are “just starting to mature,” Clemons said, “if it will just dry out they will be all right.” Some of the soybeans are starting to fall onto the ground and won’t be able to be harvested. “The early beans were good, the later ones, we don’t really know yet. They’re really loaded up, but the longer (farmers) go into fall without getting combines out in the fields, the worse it’ll get.”
If heavy rains don’t let up between now and the end of the year, Clemons said “the crops will sit out there longer” and become damaged by mold, fungus and disease. “When a crop molds it is not marketable. The governor has declared a disaster, but we don’t know if there will be aid.”
David Goodson, executive director for the county USDA Farm Service Agency, said Wednesday that groundwork has been laid for aiding farmers for future disasters with a government program called SURE — Supplemental Revenue Assistance — in which crop growers apply for federal funding with each year’s loss. The problem, however, is that the program typically falls behind.
Goodson said the local USDA-FSA is just now preparing to accept applications for harvest losses from 2008.
Other ways that farmers can handle disastrous years without going broke is by purchasing crop insurance, but the local farm agency does not administer the crop insurance program.
Goodson said there is “no way we can tell” how much aid will be administered for local farmers.