Rain is both a blessing and curse for farmers

Area farmers were glad to see rainfall this year, especially on the heels of a drought-riddled 2024.

The problem is, they may be getting too much of a good thing, said Cade Grace, Crops Extension agent for the northwest Alabama counties of Franklin, Lauderdale, Colbert, Winston Lamar, Fayette, Marion, Lawrence, Morgan and Limestone.

“Franklin County received 10.16 inches of rain in May – almost exactly double the 30-year average of 5.19 inches,” said Grace. “It rained 19 out of 31 days.”

The county had the third-wettest May since 1893, Cade said.

The excessive rainfall has hampered planting, and even ruined some of the crops the farmers did manage to get into the ground.

Crops have failed to germinate, seeds have rotted in the ground, and many fields remain too saturated to plant. While corn was largely planted early, many farmers had to replant corn, cotton, and soybeans, or leave fields idle.

Cotton has suffered — Grace estimated only 60% of the usual cotton crop in the Tennessee Valley was planted. This late planting could reduce yields and gin operations.

Some acres are now being switched to soybeans or grain sorghum (milo). “It’s either been too wet to plant, or too wet right after planting,” Grace said. “Delayed weed control is another problem. Fields are so wet that weeds are growing too large to control easily with herbicides.”

Surrounding areas

“We never fuss about rain, but it’s gone from one extreme to another,” Lauderdale County farmer Greg Hamner said. “That’s where we’re at.

“Most row crop farmers were able to get everything planted later than normal,” Hamner said. “The problem has been trying to clean those crops up. We need to be doing weed control and we’ve been doing that in the last few days.”

Hamner said as of late May, Killen had received 33.25 inches of rainfall for the year. The average for that span is 25.76 inches.

May, itself, had 8.83 inches, which is 77% above the 30-year average, Hamner said.

“It’s been tough,” farmer Randall Vaden said. “It’s been almost impossible to get much field work done. Coming off a bad crop last year, starting out rough like this can be pretty discouraging.”

Local crop insurance agent Brown Nolen said it’s a difficult situation but worsens in counties east of the Shoals. Nolen said he has turned in about a dozen prevented planting claims for corn and about as many for cotton locally.

He said the numbers are much higher in Madison County and the Sand Mountain area.

Prevented planting is crop insurance coverage when farmers cannot plant a crop by the final planting date because of an insurable cause of loss, such as heavy rainfall.

“It’s been a tough year to get a crop underground but we’re actually pretty fortunate,” Nolen said. “For the corn that has been planted and has been fertilized, it’s as pretty of a crop as you ve ever seen.

Drought caused excessive damage to crops last summer and fall, and came after some farmers had to plant certain crops late due to excessive rainfall in the spring.

A tractor hauls a round bale of hay to the field’s edge during baling operations in eastern Lauderdale County.

“When it shut off around the first of June, it shut off,” he said. “Last year, Lauderdale County was hit harder than any county in north Alabama. Right now, we’ve got the least amount of damage, which is good. It still has been a challenging year.”

Will Sandy has corn, cotton and soybean and wheat, and said it is time to start cutting wheat.

“It’s pretty decent but it’s hard to tell until you put a combine in it,” Sandy said.

Nolen said he had feared wheat would incur some disease issues because of so much rain.

“Knock on wood, we haven’t found it,” he said. “They’ll start harvesting the majority of the wheat in the next week.”

For corn, it depends whether it is on high or low ground.

“We planted about 10 days ago and are having to go back to all the low places where it rotted and replant,” Sandy said earlier this week. “We had to replant 110 to 120 acres the last couple of days after it got about a 3-inch rain on it.”

Vaden is having a similar experience.

“Corn that was planted in higher areas looks good but corn in low areas has been struggling,” he said. “It’s hard to get too much rain for corn but we did. Corn in early stages gets waterlogged.”

This comes after a bad 2024 corn season.

“It burned up,” Vaden said. “We planted a little bit later because of the rain, and then the dry weather caught it.”

Nolen said cotton planted on high ground is doing well. He said a handful of farmers were replanting this past week because crops in low areas had been drowned out.

Sandy said he started planting cotton around May 15 and finished around May 23, and planted some more this week.

“Getting cotton plants up and growing is the most stressful part,” he said. “When it’s small it struggles but once it gets going it’s a challenge to keep up with it.”

Vaden said he had worried whether he would be able to plant cotton, due to the rainfall.

“We finally managed to get it in the ground, later than I would like to have it, but we got it in by deadline as far as crop insurance goes,” he said. “Everything’s behind. All the crops are late. Some places north of us are worse than we are. There’s probably going to be a fair amount of cotton not planted this year.”

Low prices

Farmers also are dealing with low commodities prices this year. Nolen said that mainly is due to low global demand.

“Corn, cotton and soybeans, they’re just about an all-time low,” he said. “Wheat prices are terrible. It’s across the board. That’s the reason this year we needed a really a bumper crop.”

Nolen said corn prices are around $4.28. Normally it’s in the range of $6.50 to $7.

Soybeans are just over $10 per bushel.

“Just a few years ago they were up around $15,” Nolen said.

Cotton right now is about 66 cents per pound, he said.

“Two years ago, it was at $1,” Nolen said.

He said wheat is in the $5 to $5.50 range.

“It had been up in that $7.50 to $8 range just a year or two ago,” Nolen said.

Farmers are closely watching prices and not liking what they see.

“Cotton’s cheap and corn prices dropped in the last month or so,” Sandy said. “Everything’s too cheap. Everything’s too wet.”

“With commodity prices like they are, we really needed a good crop this year to see any profit at all,” Vaden said. “When a crop gets off to a bad start, you’re fighting an uphill battle all year. All farmers are coming off last year, which combined low yields and the prices.”

Hamner said they will fight through it like they often find themselves doing.

“This is the life that we decided to live, and we’ll just roll with it and move on,” he said.

Maria Camp contributed to this story.