Wet weather created several issues
Delta farmers got a head start on planting in March with favorable weather with corn and soybeans going in the ground. But when April turned up on the calendar, Mother Nature showed up and drenched those planted acres. And, depending on just how much rain fell and where, farmers are guessing as to how much damage that will have to yields.
The National Weather Service reported that Bolivar County received between four and five inches of rain in March, with early April precipitation ranging from six to ten inches. Mississippi Levee Board Chief Engineer, Peter Nimrod, said these amounts were historic.
“Up until April 1st, the River was 10 to 12 feet below average. It was low, and we’ve had historically low water levels for the past three years, with last year being the worst,” said Nimrod. “Then, rainfall occurred throughout the valley from the first to the sixth. It was up to 10 and 15 inches in some areas, and the region experienced a once-in-1,000-year rainfall event. Some near Memphis received 500-year rainfall, and others had 100-year rainfall. The river rose about 29 feet in Greenville within three weeks, but it dropped back down quickly.”
Jody Correro knows precisely how much rain fell in Cleveland. Since 2004, he has been collecting precipitation and temperature data for the National Weather Service. His father had previously collected data from 1945 to 1990.
“We had 7.74 inches total in March with 1.10 on March 9, 2.42 on March 15, 1.53 on March 20 and 1.15 on March 31,” said Correro. “In April, we had 6.61 inches with 4.37 inches on April 6.”
John Howarth got his crop planted but the rains came and took the momentum that March had started.
“It took so long for it to come up because it did stay so wet and some of it stunted. We really don’t know what kind of crop (soybeans) we have. I don’t think anybody knows,” said Howarth.
With his rice acreage, the rain kept him from spraying the crop to kill weeds and grass.
“Once you get behind on grass in rice, you can’t get caught up. We sprayed it but it was so big, when it came time to go to flood, we were fertilizing and didn’t have levees set up,” he explained. “We don’t know what kind of rice crop we’re going to have.”
With 60 percent soybean acreage and 40 percent rice, Ronnie Aguzzi thinks he’s “got a really good crop coming. We planted rice and soybeans and we got an early start and everything went well. We had less replanting than we normally have. The rain stunted a few spots but not too bad. We’re happy with the crop we’ve got. We’ve got to get the prices up where they need to be and we think we’ve got a decent crop, not above average, just decent.”
Farmers are still waiting for federal funds to cover losses from the past two growing seasons and are hopeful for a new Farm Bill, which is expected by September, that will strengthen support for producers in the agricultural sector.