Following several days of temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, local farmers were thankful for Thursday's rains, according to Faulkner County Extension Agent Bill Dodgen.
"We're thankful for the rain. Several areas got very little. We're hoping we will get more tonight," he said. "Some areas got about half an inch, maybe a little more. Some areas have received a quarter inch or less. Prior to that we were in really bad shape as far as drought conditions for a couple of weeks. Things deteriorate a lot faster than they normally do because of the extreme temperatures. Some areas hadn't had rainfall for four weeks until today."
Dodgen said farmers have harvested quite a bit of hay already this year because of the rains earlier in the season.
"We will do fine on hay if we have enough moisture not to have to feed hay early. Overall we're in pretty good shape because of early rainfall. Pastures and hay have gotten short over the last two weeks, but if we can get some more rainfall, they'll pick back up."
As for row crops, Dodgen said, "Corn is pretty well made. We're going to have a pretty decent corn crop. If we had one more rainfall we would have had a bumper crop."
After flooding in the spring, farmers had anticipated lower yields on their corn crops.
Dodgen continued, "The soybeans we planted early are good. The soybeans planted after wheat harvest (mid- to late June) are the ones we have problems with. They were small plants and when we got the hot weather, it really took its toll. They didn't have a very good root system yet because they were young plants, six to eight inches tall. They started dying because of lack of moisture and extreme heat."
He said the plants will produce about half of what was anticipated.
"It's too late for them to do much. This rain will help what's left, but because the plants died, we lost our yield," he said.
Dodgen said he believes the county can expect "a pretty good rice crop."
He added, "Our cattle are in good condition going into this part of the summer probably better than normal."
Travis Burchfield of Greenbrier farms on the Cadron bottoms along Highway 25 near Beaverfork Lake. During the flooding in the spring, he had to wait for the water to recede before he could plant his crops.
"It's looking better today after it rained," he said on Thursday. "Some of the rice got difficult to water during the 100 degree weather, but it's better today. We had to speed our pumps up and burn more fuel to keep it wet. We had some fields we just barely had enough water to keep it all wet. If it cools down from here on, we'll be in good shape."
Burchfield said the rain helped his soybean crop as well. He said he was hoping for more rain Thursday night. He said he very much needs a crop this year.
"Last year we got flooded and lost about half our rice and 80 percent of our soybeans. This year so far we haven't lost anything much. The water was real high all spring, and we kept thinking we were going to lose it. It finally quit raining and the water went down."
He added it has been an expensive year in terms of fuel and fertilizer.
"Maybe it will all work out. We really need to make (a crop)," he said.
"It's been a fairly cool summer until this last week. I hope it keeps raining a little bit. If it doesn't go through another dry spell between here and harvest, we'll be all right."
(Staff writer Rachel Parker Dickerson can be reached by e-mail at rachel.dickerson@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1277. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)
