Farmers vs. mud
By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on August 19, 2013 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/BOBBY WILLIAMS
Jacob Odom strips all the tobacco leaves off the stalk by hand Friday, forced to resort to the old way of picking tobacco because of the mud in the fields. The conditions made it impossible to use automatic harvesters. Recent heavy rains have kept farmers out of their fields, but the ground has dried enough for activity to be back to normal, said Kevin Johnson, Wayne County Extension Service director.
The county continues to have needed spotty showers, particularly in the southern part of the county, Johnson said. "What is out there looks good, but it will be a short crop," he said. Farmers lost some of the crop simply because they could not get into the field, he said. Johnson expects the bulk of the crop to be harvested by the first or second week of October.