By SHELLY STRAUTZ-SPRINGBORN
Michigan Correspondent STANTON, Mich. — Drought conditions throughout much of Michigan could be drying up hope for a profitable crop harvest.
A Michigan Weather Summary produced by the Michigan Field Office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) shows that from April 1 to July 29, every region of the state has received significantly less precipitation than normal. In the Western Upper Peninsula total precipitation has totaled 7.21 inches as compared to a normal 11.58 inches. According to the report, July precipitation varied from .04 inches in the eastern Upper Peninsula to 1.33 inches in the southeast Lower Peninsula.
“Rainfall (was) scattered around the state, giving growers varying field conditions,” the report stated. “Many farmers appreciated precipitation, while others continued to bear drier weather. Varying rainfall fell short of growers’ expectations as lack of moisture continued to increase concerns for crop condition and quality.”
Louis Carman, a Montcalm Township grower who farms about 1,100 acres of corn, soybeans and sunflowers, said he expects to feel the effects of the dry growing season this fall.
“It’s dry. I figure we’ve lost about 40 percent of our potential corn yield,” Carman said. “The dry weather “has severely affected the corn. We have to wait and see on the beans. I’m not going to wash them out yet.”
On a brighter note, Carman said his 30 acres of sunflowers are doing well.
“This weather is a lot like the (western states). The sunflowers really like it (when it’s hot and dry),” he said.
Corn surrounds the home of Larry Engel, a retired Douglass Township crop farmer who rents about 320 of his 500 acres to a neighboring farmer.
“It’s hurting. Corn is not going to be a good crop,” Engel said.
He said this year’s rainfall has been sparse and widespread.
“Right here on my farm at my house I’ve had three inches of rain in July,” he said. “Most people I’ve talked to haven’t had that much.”
However, Engel said that precipitation hasn’t done much to make up for earlier dry weather.
“May and June were short months on moisture. There was a little less than two inches each month,” he said.
“With that combination of short May and June and the heat and the sunshine, there’s been a lot of evaporation. Even though we’ve gotten these showers, it doesn’t last very long.”
Engel, whose great-grandfather began farming in the area in 1922 and passed the farm down through the generations, “mostly” retired in 1998, “but you never quite get out of it,” he said.
“I wish that when I was a young farmer I would have put in irrigation,” he said. “You would have been ensured of a crop and you’d have something to sell. Some years you don’t have much to sell.
“It gets harder all the time. There’s so much risk. You put everything at risk every year and the costs just keep going up,” Engel said.
During his farming career, Engel made it through a drought in 1988.
“I had contracted 1,000 bushels of corn for $3 a bushel. That was a pretty good price then,” he said. “I never put the corn head on that year. I don’t think I could have gotten 1,000 bushel if I had run over the whole farm. That was a much, much worse drought than this year. But it’s hot this year like it was in 1988.”
Michigan State University Agricultural Meteorologist Jeff Andresen said the drought is widespread.
“What makes it so difficult is that it all depends on which part of the state you’re in,” Andresen said. “This drought appears more acute in the Great Lakes from northern Minnesota southeast through Michigan into northern Indiana and Ohio, but remember that much of the Upper Peninsula is in much more serious shape because they’ve had severe dryness there for at least three years.”
He said that the wet off-season from last winter into spring has helped the state weather the unseasonably dry weather this summer.
“Without that, I’m certain that crop damage would be much more significant than it is. As it is, the impacts are getting larger with time.”
The Michigan Field Office of NASS tracks weekly crop conditions. The latest report shows that within a week, the amount of corn considered to be in “good to excellent” condition fell 11 percent, from 37 percent on July 22 to 26 percent on July 29. At this same time last year, 72 percent of the state’s corn crop was rated “good to excellent.”
The NASS report said soybeans are in similar shape. On July 29, 30 percent of the soybean crop was in “good to excellent” condition, down from 40 percent one week earlier and 69 percent one year ago.
This farm news was published in the Aug. 8, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
