In case you have not noticed, soil moisture conditions are getting pretty critical in Robeson County. Unlike those areas along the Mississippi River that are experiencing severe flooding problems due to the melting snows, we have just the opposite problem--not enough water.

According to the Accu-Weather section in this newspaper, so far this year, we have received more than five inches less rainfall than we normally receive by this time of the year. Most of those reading this column will be most concerned, because their lawn is looking bad. For our farmers, it is worse than bad.

Historically, we receive quite a bit of rainfall during the winter. This rainfall comes not as big thunderstorms but as gentle, soaking rains sometimes lasting for days or weeks. Even though these winter rains are depressing and inconvenient, they do serve to replenish the groundwater supplies for the upcoming growing season.

That has not happened this year. We have had occasional rains, but we have not really received an abundance of rainfall since the devastating rains of Hurricane Floyd back in 1999. Even last year, we were fortunate enough to receive occasional showers throughout the summer to allow for decent crops, but we still did not receive an abundance of rainfall.

Farmers have planted crops into dry soils, so in many cases, there was not enough moisture to germinate the seeds. Even when the seeds did germinate, the small plants have struggled to remain alive. Tobacco has been transplanted into dry soils as well, and even though they were healthy plants when they were placed in the field, they have had a hard time surviving as well.

On top of this, we have experienced some unusually cold nights this spring, along with several late frosts. In addition to having to deal with not enough moisture, the nights are so cool that the crops that are in the field are just not growing.

Early-planted tobacco, wheat, and a lot of the vegetable crops experienced frost damage. In some cases, entire fields of tobacco were replanted. In other fields where the damage was not extensive, resetting was done to replace the plants that were killed by frost. All of this created a lot of extra cost for the farmers, and now many tobacco farmers are faced with the possibility of not having enough transplants to complete planting their tobacco allotment.

When the frosts during Easter week first happened, it was difficult to determine just how extensive the damage would be to wheat. The heads were just beginning to form, and this is one of the most critical times for the plants. As it turned out, the damage was more severe than first anticipated. Now many wheat fields show evidence of severe frost damage by the large patches of brown areas in the fields. These brown areas are the heads of wheat that do not contain any seeds because of frost damage. When harvested, there will be no grain in these areas of the field or the yields in these areas will be extremely low.

These weather problems are compounding the problems for our farmers. Prices for virtually all of our commodities are still very low, and because of surpluses and low levels of export trade, it appears that these prices will remain low at least through the coming year. Without plenty of rainfall and warm temperatures to provide good yields, most farmers will struggle to realize a profit this year.

Even though it is dry now and it has been unusually cool most of this spring, it is much too soon to predict that our farmers will not have a good growing season. For their sakes, let's pray for more seasonable weather for the next four to six months.

E-mail address: Everett_Davis@ncsu.edu

Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 2280
Lumberton, NC 28359-2280

Phone: 910-671-3276
Fax: 910-671-6278

Date Created 09/11/01