Recent rain could be too little, too late

While farmers have welcomed recent rains, the damage has already been done for several crops.

USDA Farm Service Agency County Executive Director Doug Niemeir said some of the corn in the area was planted early enough and had a short enough maturity season that it was able to beat the heat, but the rest of the crop was not so lucky. With nightly temperatures well exceeding the needed 70 degrees, the corn's pollination process was not able to occur in many areas.

"Part of the corn is an average crop sitting out there waiting to harvest," Niemeir said. "There is going to be some corn that is very poor to mediocre ... There will be more mediocre or lower yielding corn than there will be average."

All has not been completely lost, according to Niemeir. Some of the area farmers were able to salvage some of the corn stalk to be cut up for feed. With the corn harvest season just weeks away, Niemeir said recent precipitation will not help the damaged corn.

"The corn has either made or not, so the recent rain probably didn't effect it hardly at all," he said.

David Foster, owner of Foster Dairy, said with the heat, conditions have been "pretty miserable outside." Since cattle do not have the ability to sweat, Foster said the only way to keep them cool is to use an evaporation method, similar to when a person steps out of the shower and is blasted with cold air, giving them a chilly feeling.

"That's the only way we have to keep them cool," Foster said.

The way this is done is through Foster's Free Stall Barn that is equipped with fans and a sprinkler system. The sprinklers soak the cattle and the fans blow on the cattle as the water evaporates. The process is repeated several times with the sprinkler system being set on a timer.

Foster said the added benefit to the barn is that the cattle are always under cover and in the shade. He said under the barn, the temperature is usually five degrees cooler than it is outside.

"One of the biggest benefits of (the free stall barn) is helping with the heat in the summer," he said.

Despite his best efforts, Foster said the heat has caused him to lose two head of cattle. Since getting the new Free Stall Barn in November 2007, this is the first time he has lost cattle due to the heat, he said.

"There's not much you can do outside of what we're doing when it's so hot," he said.

Foster, like several other agriculture producers, has seen a decrease in the yield of his crops to feed his cattle. He said he has heard of several local beef producers who have already sold their cattle because they are out of pasture and cannot afford the increasing cost of feed.

"It's rough and it's going to be a big financial burden on us. We're already stressing out about this fall, winter and spring because we don't want to have to pay for $8 per bushel ... to feed our cows through the year," Foster said.

The pastures have been greatly impacted by the drought, Niemeir said. Some local farmers have already begun to supplement their pasture grazing with feed, something that is not normally done until mid-to-late November.

"You can just watch a pasture dry up right in front of your eyes and blow away," Niemeir said.

Foster knows the risks of dry pasture as he had a grass fire start Tuesday that was not extinguished until Wednesday. He said the fire department was out five times in 24 hours because the blaze kept springing up from smoldering timber and hay bales.

"It only took one spark blowing in the wind from one of those to set some grass back on fire," Foster said.

But there is still hope. Niemeir said the rain is likely to help the pastures recover and promote the soybean crops. He added soybean plants have a tendency to delay sprouting their buds until more favorable weather comes.

"The soybeans and the grass could definitely benefit from any moisture (they) can get," he said. "Favorable weather from today on would perhaps give us a chance at an average soybean crop ... Most of those soybean plants are hanging on."