MAYFIELD, Ky. — Row crop farmer Jerry Griffith of Sedalia, Ky., bemoaned weather conditions so far this summer in the southwestern part of his state.

“We have had very little rain this spring. Seven-tenths of an inch in April, and I think 8/10 in May – and I think we’ve had about a half-inch or so in June,” he explained. “We don’t have any subsoil moisture because it was extremely dry over this winter. I was just now listening to the weather; we’re 12 inches below normal right here for our part of the country.

“In my opinion, corn is going to be cut close to 50 percent,” Griffith said of his yield for 2012. “We had been averaging about 160 bushels to 170 bushels, and I think we are going to be fortunate if we get 100 bushels this year.”

Longtime farmer Griffith is glad he has good crop insurance that will pay his expenses. “It won’t buy a tractor, but it will pay the fertilizer and chemical bills, and help keep our heads above water,” he said.

Kenny Perry is the University of Kentucky extension agent for Graves County. He believes the moisture problem is going to get worse.

“The problem,” he said, “is that we are so dry, and pollination is dependent upon moisture and temperature. We have no rain in our forecast for the next week and our temperatures will be mid and upper 90s.”

According to Perry on June 16, corn was 30-40 percent tasseled and the remainder of the crop would tassel in the coming week to 10 days. “At tassling, Perry said, “you have pollen shed, and the pollen has got to travel down the silk into the embryo on the cob for fertilization.

“When temperatures are above 93 degrees, it reduces the viability of the pollen and decreases the chance that pollen is going to travel down the silk before it dries up.”

Corn in Henderson County, in the more northwestern part the state, could see losses of up to 40 percent under current conditions. Extension agent Michael Smith reported he is expecting the severe dryness will cause uneven sequencing between the tassling and the silking of some corn. He too said high temperatures have an effect on pollination.

“However, we are having some small areas with good corn right now. There might even be one or two producers who lucked up and got rain, who say they have a good crop,” he said.

Smith said nearby Union County is as dry as Henderson County, and Davis County is extremely dry in the western part of the state.

Griffith, the Mayfield farmer, said he is not optimistic. Things change, though, he acknowledged.

“I cannot believe how it is when you go over your crops in the morning and they look fairly good,” Griffith said, “then, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, you don’t want to take your banker with you because he would probably foreclose on you.”