Weather changes taking a toll on local crop yield
By Steve Herring
Published in News on October 16, 2015 1:46 PM
What effect the recent heavy and prolonged rain will have on Wayne County's crop yields won't be fully known until after harvest.
Rainfall totals from the recent storm varied anywhere from 6 to 10 inches across the county -- some more, some less -- over the 12 days that the rain fell, said Extension Service field crop agent Tyler Whaley.
Farmers are able to get into their fields now, but there are still some wet areas they have to avoid, Extension Director Kevin Johnson said.
Adding to the uncertainty over the yields are the much-cooler temperatures forecast for the weekend and the threat of frost.
"Frost could be a problem as we try to finish harvesting the tobacco crop," Johnson said.
Tobacco, the county's traditional cash crop, already is suffering from a "lot" of both soil-borne and leaf disease, Whaley said. Those diseases have hindered the crop for a majority of the season, he added.
"We had (disease) development prior to the storm, but the excessive rainfall will only cause the disease to increase due to consistent cloudy, overcast days," Whaley said. "Yield and quality will decline due to disease presence, leaf deterioration, decrease in green weight, leaf quality reduction, and inability to harvest quick enough.
"We did have some leaf drop in areas as a result of the storm, but the degree of severity is nothing like we have seen in the past."
Some corn remains in the field, and the concern is will there be much difficulty with harvest because of stalks being blown down, Whaley said.
Severity varies throughout the county, Whaley said.
Whaley said he has seen some seed sprouting in open cotton boles because of the rainfall. That likely will result in higher trash content, lint staining, poor seed quality, and overall poor grades, he said.
Defoliated cotton is more of a concern than non-defoliated because of the greater percentage of open bolls per plant, Whaley said.
"With peanuts the issue is the likelihood of pod shed due to delays in digging dates since most had reached or were approaching maturity prior to the rainfall event," Whaley said. "Digging conditions will not be ideal so there is a yield loss concern."
Early maturing soybeans, such as variety group 4s and maybe some early variety group 5s, are at the greatest risk for damage, Whaley said.
"This is because the seeds were already relatively dry, so once they came in contact with excessive moisture, sprouting could be triggered," he said. "Seed discoloration is also an issue with those beans. I would not be surprised if this leads to dockages (in what the crops brings) at the elevator due to a decrease in seed quality.
"Later-maturing soybeans such as mid-to-late group 5s, group 6s, and group 7s are, for the most part, going to be okay unless they have been in standing water for a significant amount of time. I see no significant reduction in yield since those beans are at R6-R7 (full seed, beginning stage of maturity)."