Tagged: corn

From NPR: Last year, drought devastated many corn farmers, so you think they’d welcome all the spring rain. But it’s putting them behind schedule because they can’t plant in soaked fields.

Tennessee farmers may be lamenting losses to the corn harvest resulting from this summer’s drought, but midsummer rains have saved most of their other crops. Cotton is expected to bring in some of the best per-acre yields. Farmer Willis Jepson says soybeans made 55 bushels per acre. That’s 15 more than usual. But his farm still lost $500,000  in corn.

This year’s drought hasn’t just lessened corn crops in our region. It’s also left stalks too low for the fall tradition of corn mazes.

Sam Brown of Mayfield’s A-Maize-ing Farms says instead of the usual 20-acre corn maze, it will offer other activities such as a petting zoo and paintball. The owners of Paducah’s Blooms ‘N Gardens say if it hadn’t been for their irrigation system, they would’ve lost their 8-acre maze.

The U.S. corn harvest continues ahead of schedule with some states nearly half-finished at a time when they usually are just getting started.  In its weekly crop update, the USDA says little has changed in the condition of drought-damaged corn and soybeans. That's because the plants are too far along for recent rain to make a difference.  Corn was planted several weeks earlier this year and matured more quickly in the summer heat, allowing farmers to start harvesting early.  Tennessee has almost half of its corn in, compared to the usual 21 percent.

Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer is warning livestock producers and corn growers to take steps to avoid harming livestock by feeding them drought-stricken corn silage.