LEXINGTON, Ky. — In a growing season that held high expectations for crops, especially corn, producers are seeing more of a nightmare as the heat and drought continue across Kentucky and much of the United States.

A report from the Kentucky field office of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service released June 29 indicated farmers here had planted 1.6 million acres of corn, an increase of 16 percent over last year’s crop. Strong prices had prompted much of the increase and had caused many farmers who had never planted the crop before to give it a try.

Unfortunately, the weather has not cooperated and has in fact been unusual all year. A warm winter was followed by the same in spring and thermometers have just kept rising all over. According to information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center, “the combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for May 2012 was 0.66 degree Celsius (1.19 Fahrenheit) above the 20th century average of 14.8 degrees C (58.6 F). This is the second warmest May since records began in 1880, behind only 2010.”

Closer to home, many areas in the state have seen record heat with triple-digit temperatures. A reprieve of sorts has come this week with a return to the 80s but the traditionally hottest part of the summer is yet to come.

All this has left the state’s crops in peril, especially the corn. University of Kentucky (UK) College of Agriculture grain crop specialist Chad Lee said growers are very close to the “point of no return” if it doesn’t rain soon – very soon.

“Most of this corn is needing about 3/10 of an inch of water each day and we just do not have it in the soil, and when you add 100-degree temperatures it’s probably more than that. So it’s not a good situation, obviously,” he said.

It still may be too soon to know if the crop can be salvaged to some point, but Lee said he already knows producers have lost yield. An accurate guess on just how much will not be known for at least two more weeks.

Right now, 70 percent of the crop is in the pollination stage and moisture is critical. Lee noted when the weather is hot and dry it also throws off the synchronization of pollination, causing pollen to drop before the silks are out.

“Basically, everything that could go wrong, from a weather standpoint and in terms of pollination on this corn, has gone wrong,” he said.

Lee said rain really needs to come within a week or those yield losses could be significant.

But farmers aren’t the only ones being affected by the heat and drought. The weather has prompted many local governments to impose burning and water usage bans. The state has also initiated a Water Shortage Watch for 27 counties.

According to information from the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, “A Water Shortage Watch is issued when drought conditions have the potential to threaten the normal availability of drinking water supply sources. Officials at the Kentucky Division of Water study rainfall amounts, reservoir levels, streamflows, the Palmer Drought Index and the Drought Monitor when determining drought status.”

State Climatologist Stuart Foster said dry conditions, coupled with extremely hot temperatures at this time, is causing a one-two punch kind of impact. “An exceptionally dry June throughout the state coupled with some record-high temperatures over the past week have caused drought conditions to intensify and spread eastward to cover most of Kentucky,” he said.

“The current situation is reminiscent of 1988, while there are some indications that persistence of the current hot and dry pattern that would trigger comparisons to droughts from the 1930s.”

UK ag meteorologist Tom Priddy said this is the time of year when tropical storms could create some much-needed moisture but the medium- and long-range outlooks for moisture in this area are not positive. So far, the best prospect for rain has come in the form of isolated thunderstorms that have popped up.

“What may happen, if we continue with the isolated and scattered thunderstorms, those farmers that get it will possibly make a crop and the majority that don’t get it, won’t,” he said.

Priddy also said the extremely hot temperatures on top of an existent drought created what he had heard referred to as a flash drought. “It was like putting the Bluegrass State in an oven,” he said.

If there is a glimmer of hope, Priddy noted that in the past, July has sometimes proven to be one of the wettest months of the year, and those tropical rainfalls have come before – and could come again.

In the meantime, Lee said many producers are already looking at other options to salvage their decimated corn crop, such as using it for feed to help at least break even. 

But he warns in this case, farmers should have the corn tested for nitrogen levels before selling to livestock producers or using it themselves, as high nitrate levels in feed can be toxic to cattle.