Sunday’s rain too late for corn crop
by Tom Chillemi
Sunday’s rain came too late to help a Middlesex County corn crop that has been devastated by lack of rain, record heat and drying winds the past two months.
A violent storm on Sunday dropped between 2 and 3 inches of rain in the Hartfield area, 2 inches in Saluda and an inch in the Deltaville area, said David Moore, Cooperative Extension Agent for Middlesex.
However, Montague Farms, located at Laneview just across the Middlesex-Essex county line had very little rain, Moore noted.
“The corn is not going to get any better,” said Moore, who drafted a disaster assistance resolution for corn and hay and pasture that the Middlesex Board of Supervisors approved Tuesday night.
Moore said he may also seek disaster assistance for Mathews and Gloucester counties.
The drought resolution will make farmers eligible for low interest loans and other federal programs that may be offered later as a result of the drought, said Moore. For example, a few years ago counties that had been declared a disaster were eligible for an emergency feed program.
Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck counties have weathered the drought better than many other counties in Virginia, Moore said.
How much Sunday’s rain helped soybeans and pasture grass remains to be seen, said Moore. “Two inches sounds like a lot, but that’s what we needed to freshen things up.”
Prior to Sunday’s rain, the little rain that fell the past several weeks was “enough to fill a mud puddle,” said Moore. “It might have freshened soybeans at the time, but when the sun came out and it got back to 90 degrees, it was all gone.”
Water levels in irrigation ponds and lakes have been sinking as farmers try to salvage some of their crops, most of which turned “crunchy” brown. “We need weekly rain to grow corn during a three-week window and we didn’t get it,” said Moore.
Fields near Urbanna went without rain through most of the hottest June on record, said Jason Bray of Hampstead Farm in Remlik.
During June, Richmond International Airport recorded 19 days when it was 90 degrees or higher, and three days with temperatures of 102.
“Some of it is toast,” said Bray, referring to his corn. “Some fields look like they will make it, others will have a stalk with no ear.”
“What killed us was the heat,” said Bray. “It can take some dry weather, but it can’t take the heat and wind together.”
Bray said the drought can wear him down when he thinks about all the time he has invested in his dwindling crops. “All I needed was some rain,” he said. “All that time I put in for nothing. It’s frustrating. I try not to think about it.”
Things were no better down the county in Deltaville. “The field corn is history,” said Tyler Crittenden of Merryvale Produce of Amburg. Crittenden estimates the corn harvest will be 25 bushels per acre, which compares with a 110-120 bushel-per-acre harvest in an average year.
While melons do well with sparse rain, the heat sunburned about half the watermelons and some cantaloupes and tomatoes. “That sun never let up. I couldn’t keep up with the irrigation,” he said.
On Monday, following .6-inch of rain, Merryvale Produce was replanting soybeans that had died. “Sunday was the first rain the soybeans had since they were planted,” said Crittenden. “On June 14th we had a good rain, then it stopped. It’s been brutal. It makes you feel like giving up.”