Freeze, drought threatens farmlands
By Staff
Jason Cannon, Franklin County Times
An early April freeze paired with a recent lack of rain is on the verge of wrecking agricultural business in Franklin County.
A hard freeze during Easter weekend killed or damaged most of the local fruit and nut crop, and the drought that has plagued early spring has made everything from growing corn to hay a struggle.
"A lot of the farmers are just now doing their first (hay) cutting," Franklin County Extension Agent Tim Reed said. "If they don't get some rain soon after that first cutting, the hay will turn brown and it won't grow, or will be slow to grow."
This could, Reed said, lead to an even bigger hay shortage than last winter, which means local cattlemen would have to sell their herds down even lower.
April's freeze ground the county's wheat production to a halt and many farmers sold what acreage they could for hay. However, Reed said those sales didn't even offset the expense to maintain the crop.
"A lot of farmers were selling it as hay for about $50 an acre," he said. "That's not even enough to pay for the seed and fertilizer. If they had been able to sell it for grain, they could have made some money, but if they didn't sell it for hay, they wouldn't have gotten anything at all."
Local wheat growers, hoping to regroup after the freeze, originally intended to plant other row crops after cutting their fields but were met with more bad news.
"The ground is so hard from the lack of rain, you can't plant anything," Reed said.
The majority of local farmers have the remains of their last hopes pinned to a decent corn crop, but the summer heat hasn't made that easy either.
"If it started to rain (Wednesday), we might make it," Reed said.
"If we don't get some rain in about two weeks, I think the yield will be much less than normal."
Reed said other local crop staples, such as cotton and soy beans, are being threatened from the lack of rainfall but since they are smaller and don't require as much water to survive, their needs are less urgent as others.
