Dry Weather Hurts Potential Yield for Farmers

Every day that it stays dry, more yield is being robbed from Greg George's parched corn and soybean fields in western Kentucky. He says it's been about two months since many of his fields in Caldwell and Lyon counties got their last good soaking from a rain.

With the exception of Fulton County, all of western Kentucky is now noted on the USDA's latest Drought Monitor map. In the five-level grading of drought severity, western Kentucky is mostly up to the first -- and mildest -- level, labeled "abnormally dry."

Additionally, southeast Marshall County, eastern Calloway, and points eastward through south-central Kentucky are a notch higher, at "moderate drought." (See link below.)  

In the entire state of Illinois, the only counties listed at the lowest level of drought are Kentucky neighbors -- eastern Massac, southern Pope and southern Hardin.

So far, milder summer temperatures have spared George from the prospect of even paltrier yields. Still, he predicts much of his corn will muster yields of 100 bushels an acre. That's well off last year's 185 to 190 bushels per acre in what was one of his best grain crops ever.

The outlook for Kentucky's upcoming harvest depends on where farmers live. In north-central Kentucky, a much-needed rain recently perked up Doug Langley's corn and soybeans at a time when they were suffering.

On the Net:

Kentucky Drought Monitor