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Thursday, July 10, 2008 10:33 AM Thirsty crops soak in rain By Eddie Fitzgerald | Times Staff Writer Plentiful rainfall since Saturday has been a welcome blessing to Wilson County farmers. Ron Lamm, who co-owns a farm with his brother, David, in the Sims area, said the drought-like conditions before the rains were getting worrisome. "But it seems like the rains Saturday turned it around," Lamm said Wednesday while he worked in his fields. "We got some big rains. We are wet right now, and it helped out a lot." Lamm, however, said half jokingly, farmers "can never be satisfied. "I hate to complain, but now we need a little break," he said. "The dry weather will scare you to death, but then when we get wet, we can't do anything except sit there and look at it." But Wednesday, Lamm was topping tobacco and setting up tobacco plants that were blown over by Tuesday's strong winds. Last night, Wilson received another 0.38 inches of rain, according to the Wiggins Mill Weather Station. The growing season for Lamm and other Wilson County farmers started out good with some light rains and cooler temperatures. But that weather soon changed to dry, hot drought conditions, causing him to consider the weather. "I think the seasons have changed," Lamm said. "I'm thankful for the rain, though. It was much needed, and it helped things out a lot." Although without a break in the rain, which is forecast to be sporadic to the weekend, Lamm, who grows cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat, said it is putting him a little behind spraying his crops because it was difficult to get through the soggy fields. Norman Harrell, agriculture extension agent, was also in Lamm's field Wednesday looking over his crop. "It was certainly a blessing getting the rain we got over the weekend," Harrell said. "It was getting very dry in the county. Unfortunately, when you deal with Mother Nature it's either famine or feast." The recent rains brought about 5 to 6 inches of rain to the northern portion of the county, Harrell said. Unfortunately, the powerful winds that came through Tuesday blew over about 100 acres of tobacco on farms in the northern portion of the county, Harrell said. Those blown over plants have to be set up by hand so harvesters can get through the fields. Some of the corn grown in the county that was hurting from the drought and heat will benefit from the rains, Harrell said. "But a portion of the corn was too far along (perishing from the drought) for the rain to be much benefit," he said. "We have lost some corn yield due to the dry weather." Lamm said he thought the rain came at just the right time for his corn crop. "If it had been another week with no rain, we would have been in bad shape," Lamm said. Harrell said the tobacco and soybeans were also looking much better since the rain. Some of the tobacco plants had stopped growing because it was so dry and some soybean plants were dying off. But the rain is helping them to grow again, he said. "We've still got a long season ahead of us," Harrell said. eddie@wilsontimes.com | 265-7820 |
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