It's no secret that we are in a drought out here in Kansas. Last week when my mom was here, she and I drove around one evening taking photos and we came across this field of corn that is a pretty good indicator of the harvest to come. In a word: Poor.
It's not nearly as tall as normal. Without walking into the field I'd guess it wasn't six feet tall. It's already turning brown and you can see that part of the field has already been chopped for silage. It has been chopped because no ears have formed or there just isn't enough water to finish the crop out. Although farmers out here irrigate they are only allocated a certain amount per season. Irrigation is to supplement rainfall but because there has been very little rain this year most farmers ran out of their irrigated water allocations by mid July.
A early harvest is predicted for SW Kansas. I heard one farmer say they expected to harvest in late August/early September. Yep, that's early. The yields are expected to be 25-50% less than average and average yields are 250 bushels an acre.
What's that country song? Rain makes corn, corn makes whiskey?
Well, no rain...no corn...no whiskey.
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my heart aches for all the farmers. We are finally getting some rain here in Indiana.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry to hear of this!
ReplyDeleteI thought our corn was behind, but I see we dont have anything to complain about.
I pray God blesses you and your family.