Nearly daily rain so far during August has raised a potentially dark cloud over Leflore County’s harvest of row crops, with scattered reports of slightly damaged corn ears, soybean pods and cotton bolls.
“I am hearing all kinds of scenarios from good to bad,” said Andy Braswell Sr., the Leflore County Extension Service agent. “If it would quit (raining) now, it would benefit everybody.”
Braswell said he has heard of everything including soybeans sprouting in their pods, cotton boll rot and a little molding of corn.
“Right now I am not saying that we are in a dire situation,” he said. “We are still in good shape. We may have a little damage in the crop.”
Braswell said the steady rainfall has left the ground moist and difficult to harvest.
From Aug. 1 through Wednesday, the Greenwood area has received 5 inches of rainfall, according to the National Weather Service. The normal amount of rainfall during that period is 1.4 inches.
Yet, Braswell said, there is no cause for alarm. “Most crops can handle it. It just depends on how far along on maturity” they are, he said.
“Once the rain lightens up and everything dries, we will have a lot of corn that will be ready to cut. A large percentage of farmers will wait so they don’t track up the field.”
Although the rain has not been ideal for harvesting, it has not been without a benefit.
“We did not have to irrigate as much as we usually do in the summer because of the precipitation,” Braswell said. “It has saved us on irrigation costs.”
Riley Poe, who farms soybeans, corn and cotton, said the early rains helped with irrigation, and he was able to cut some corn in between the downpours.
His corn and cotton have not received much damage, but he did see little sprouts on his soybean pods.
Billy Whittington, who grows cotton, corn and soybeans, said his crops weren’t in bad shape.
“It is kind of rare to have 10 days of rain, but we don’t seem to have any more diseases from the rain,” he said. “My latest beans were at a stage where they benefit from the rain.”
The only crop whose yields and quality the rain could potentially threaten is cotton, he said.
•Contact Lauren Randall at 581-7239 or lrandall@gwcommonwealth.com.
