MOUNT VERNON — Even the weather’s having a credit crunch.
In what seems to be a deepening pattern in recent years, each season starts off with a taste of the main season to come, followed by a sudden relapse to the weather that was due earlier. While this makes for a pleasant Indian summer before winter sets in for good, it can wreak havoc on agricultural activities.
Spring started delightfully this year, with warm temperatures and moderate precipitation. But now the inevitable slog traditionally described as “April showers,” with gray days and chilly rains, has settled in, several weeks late, preventing many Knox County farmers from finishing up spring planting of corn and soybeans.
“There’s an old saying that you lose a bushel a day past the 10th of May,” said OSU Extension agent John Barker on Friday after compiling his latest estimates on planting.
Yields are reduced because plants don’t have sufficient time to grow to full potential before they have to be harvested.
Barker said that many of the farmers he talked to this week have been unable to get into their fields due to the rain.
“Some of the larger farms are nearly done, but a lot of the smaller ones have a way to go,” Barker said, adding that this was putting Knox County farmers well behind where they were at this time last year.
Halfway through the month of May, current rainfall figures range in the area from 2.49 inches in Johnstown to 4.36 inches near Utica. These figures are almost double what was reported at weather stations throughout the area in mid-May of 2007. The current National Weather Service forecast is including a moderate chance of rain throughout most of the coming week. The latest extended forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration call for Ohio to remain in below-normal temperatures with above-normal rainfall through the early part of summer. Weather conditions are expected to moderate to near-normal conditions further into the summer.
