Every day, local farmer Scott Enlow walks outside, looks at the sky and hopes to see a hint of gray. Some nights, he thinks he hears distant thunder, and he leaps from his bed to go outside and welcome the blessed rainfall that will nourish his crops. The rain never comes.
Monday afternoon, as a brief shower wet the streets downtown, Enlow was still hoping for rain to reach his farm on Black Creek Road.
“What”s really disgusting is in the last week, thunderstorms have gone on either side of us, but we haven”t gotten a drop,” he said. “It gets hard, but I love it. I love growing stuff. I like watching it grow; I like seeing the end result when you”ve worked over the stuff and toiled over it.”
Enlow, a USDA-certified organic gardener, is luckier than some area farmers. His farm only encompasses around half an acre, so he”s able to irrigate his crop of corn, tomatoes, beans, watermelons, cantaloupes, garlic, onions, peppers and greens.
Chuck Younger, who lives near Plymouth Bluff, has nearly 500 acres of corn scattered throughout Lowndes and Monroe counties. Because of the deep water table in the area, irrigation isn”t a cost-effective solution to Mother Nature”s capriciousness.
Younger, who has farmed for nearly three decades, said he planted late this year, so his corn hasn”t reached tasseling stage yet — a time period when rainfall is most critical.
Recently, when he tried to plant soybeans behind his harvested wheat crop, the soil was almost too hard to till.
“I just went ahead and planted in the dry, hoping we”d get rain to bring it up,” he said. “I”m worried about my corn, my beans and my kids. I just hope there”s going to be something to harvest.”
Dr. Jeff Wilson, area horticulture agent and interim director for the Lowndes County Extension Office, said as he drives around, it”s easy to spot the crops that are struggling. There”s time to recover for many of them — if we get more rainfall soon.
“It”s amazing how just a little rain in a field can make a big difference,” he said.
Eric Larson, corn specialist at the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said the cool, wet spring didn”t help matters because it delayed planting, and the presence of an early drought doesn”t bode well for the remainder of the season. A lack of rainfall can cause serious drops in production yield, which can hit farmers with large crops particularly hard.
Area agronomy agent Charlie Stokes said he tries not to talk to farmers about the weather during this time of year, because during dry spells, it can be a sensitive subject.
“They”re worried,” Stokes said. “They try not to let on, but yeah, they”re concerned. I try not to mention it, because I know what kind of mindset they”re in.”
Daniel Lamb, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, said Lowndes and Oktibbeha counties have not been determined to be in an official drought yet, but they are on the cusp of being considered in an “abnormally dry” period for this year, partially because of a spike in spring rainfall.
He said the area is currently running around two to five inches below normal for last month but close to normal for the year.
Nadine Cochran, who was selling blueberries at the Hitching Lot Farmers” Market Monday afternoon, said she has decided to take matters into her own hands. Today, she will begin watering the 30 bushels she tends. Water is important, not just to keep the plants alive, but also for tenderness, flavor and size.
A few booths down from Cochran, farmer Adam Nester sat on the bed of his truck with buckets of squash and watched buyers line up for tomatoes.
Normally, he would have tomatoes and cucumbers, but the lack of rain has hit him hard this year. He estimates he will lose 70 percent of his corn crop.
Even Monday”s rainfall is not likely to save it, he said.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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Related Photos
Local farmers Monica and Melvin Ellis’s 12-year-old son, Beau Ellis, stands by their stand of goods at the Hitching Lot Farmers’ Market in Columbus Monday afternoon while a much-needed shower occurs after weeks without rain in the area. Photo by: Luisa Porter
Kaye Burnett buys vegetables from local farmer Phil Lancaster Monday afternoon at the Hitching Lot Farmers’ Market in downtown Columbus. Area farmers rejoiced when rain fell Monday afternoon, but some, like Adam Nester, said it was too little, too late. Nester expects to lose 70 percent of his corn crop this year. Photo by: Luisa Porter
