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“With the price of fuel going up, it’s not a good situation. With the corn
already under severe drought stress, it’s a bad situation.”
Chad Lee,
UK College of Agriculture Extension Plant and Soil Scientist |
By Laura Skillman
PRINCETON, Ky., (Sept. 9, 2005) – While recent rains helped alleviate some
drought conditions, it came too late for the state’s corn crop and much of its
tobacco patches. Only soybeans may have profited from showers that came prior to
and with Hurricane Katrina.
In a year when yields are already suffering, farmers are heading into the
harvest facing the likelihood of more downed cornstalks, which slows the harvest
and can result in additional lost yield, said Chad Lee, an Extension plant and
soil scientist with the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture.
The moist, cooler conditions can also encourage stalk diseases, which could
further deteriorate the stalks. That means farmers may have to harvest corn when
the grain is wetter and, therefore, incur more drying costs.
“With the price of fuel going up, it’s not a good situation,” Lee said. “With
the corn already under severe drought stress, it’s a bad situation.”
In Kentucky’s tobacco fields, some crops have already been harvested. For some
farmers, rains came earlier than expected, forcing them to leave tobacco already
cut but not yet put in barns out through several days of rain. That tobacco
could sustain rot damage and mud splatters, said Gary Palmer, UK tobacco
specialist. What impact that will have on the crop’s salability is something
growers will have to address with their contract companies, he said.
Some tobacco still standing in the fields has blown over because rains loosened
the roots, allowing them to be more susceptible to the winds that accompanied
the remnants of Hurricane Katrina as it made its way through the state.
This is the second time some of these fields have sustained wind damage, said
Andy Bailey, a UK tobacco specialist located in west Kentucky. Remnants of
Hurricane Dennis also pushed tobacco over, resulting is some crooked stalks as
the plants tried to right themselves.
Palmer said that moisture is needed during the curing process so additional
rainfalls will be helpful in that process. Also, any tobacco that had just been
topped and still had a few weeks to grow before harvest may have benefited from
the recent rains.
Writer: Laura Skillman
270-365-7541 ext. 278
Contact: Chad Lee, 859-257-3203
Gary
Palmer, 859-257-8667
Andy
Bailey, 270-365-7541 ext. 240
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