Wet weather causing headaches for area farmers

PANDORA - Last summer it was too dry. This summer it's been too wet. No matter which end of the spectrum the area's weather goes, the conditions present challenges for area farmers.

Farmers and agricultural experts agree, however, that dealing with too much rain is better than suffering with too little.

"Overall, we'll take this year over last year any time. People ask me sometimes what do farmers want. They're always worried about the weather," said Jerry Suter, owner of Suter's Produce near Pandora. "We'd like a year with no records - either dry or too wet or too hot or too cold, just kind of a normal year. Last year and this year have been anything but that."

Fields so far this spring and summer have tended to be excessively wet, said Andy Kleinschmidt, Van Wert County OSU Extension agent. The wet conditions have made it difficult for area farmers to get into the fields.

"Getting in and doing some field work has been a bit of a challenge," Kleinschmidt said. "The primary field work that we need to work on is herbicide applications for soybeans."

As a result of delays in spraying the herbicides, a number of soybean fields are appearing weedy, Kleinschmidt said. The weeds in the field could have an impact on the quality of the crop and yields as the soybean plants compete for the soil's nutrients, he said.

Suter said his crops have handled the conditions fairly well.

"We're anticipating a real good sweet corn crop this year. We've had some challenges but we're very fortunate that it's going to work out," Suter said. "The strawberries we just finished with they had a hard time pollinating. They bloomed real heavy and they looked good but it was so cold and wet that quite a few of the blooms didn't make berries. The strawberry yield was lower than normal just because it was so cold and wet around bloom time."

Glen Arnold, Putnam County OSU Extension agent, said the overly wet conditions have caused some farmers to have to replant fields - some multiple times.

"The ground has stayed too wet for most farmers to get replant opportunities. For those who did get back in and were able to replant some of those areas, the rains that followed were so heavy that for many farmers they've got areas of field they've planted two or three times and not got what they would consider reasonable stand."

Kleinschmidt and Arnold agreed it's too early to tell how yields will do this year for the corn and soybean crops. With a wheat crop that's ready for harvest, only a few dry days will enable farmers to get into fields and maximize the crop, they said.

"What we'd like now is to have some dry weather," Arnold said. "We really need some dry weather to harvest the wheat crop."