LaSalle Township grower Robert Zorn says his corn and soybeans are at a standstill this summer due to lack of rain.
“The fields are all the same — they’re not growing much,” Mr. Zorn said Monday. “They need moisture. We’ve not had a decent rain in a long time.”
His grain fields are not alone. Many fields and backyard gardens throughout Monroe County are showing stress from little or no rainfall since May, one of the factors that prompted the National Weather Service to label the county a drought area. Complicating matters is another mini-heat wave this week that is worsening soil conditions in southeast Michigan. Precipitation is “way below normal” for summer, Mr. Zorn said.
Less than an inch of rain has fallen in the region so far in July, according to Evening News records.
The weather service has elevated both Lenawee and Monroe counties to D1 status, which stands for “moderate drought.” That means that rainfall is running 2 to 3 inches below average and that some crops may be hurt, said Sara Schultz, a meteorologist for the weather service at Pontiac. Soil moisture also is deficient by up to 20 percent.
The two counties were listed as DO (abnormally dry), but conditions have deteriorated and gotten worse, Ms. Schultz said. Other counties west of Lenawee — including the western half of Hillsdale County — are labeled as D2 because precipitation there is running 3 to 4 inches below normal. Both Lenawee and Monroe counties could be moved to that category if soil conditions worsen, she said.
Ned Birkey from Spartan Agricultural said there are two factors affecting Monroe County agriculture: heat and drought.
“So far our days above 90 degrees is more than normal,” Mr. Birkey said Monday. “This affects animals and people working outside. The heat wouldn’t be so bad if we had more rainfall for lawns and gardens as well as crops. Of course if we had more rainfall, we’d have more diseases. So the lack of rain has kept many, but not all, diseases in check, which is one benefit.”
Because crops are in a reproductive phase of developing ears, pods and fruits, plants require more moisture. Also, because some soils are sandier and hold less moisture, those crops are under more drought stress than crops on “wetter” soils, he said.
“The combination of high temperatures and lack of rainfall is really a double whammy,” the farm consultant said. “Some fields continue to look okay, not good, but okay. Other fields have crops that are drying back quickly and may not recover even if we get some rainfall this week.”
Farms and fields with irrigation are struggling to keep up, “but they look much better than those without irrigation,” he said.
Fred and Mary Lou Smith of Petersburg said rainfall has been spotty at best. The first good rain in the last two months dropped six-tenths of an inch of moisture near their home on Todd Rd. about two weeks ago. But not all of their fields got that.
“We’re not getting half the rain we usually get,” Mr. Smith said. “They’ve been getting rain south and north of us, but not a drop here. It’s been real spotty. We have sandy ground and our beans looked pretty good until last week, which took a toll on them. I think a third of the corn is gone and yields will be (way) down if it stays dry.”
The Smiths planted soybeans as early as April 17, even before all of the corn fields were planted. The soybeans were “big and tall, but now they’re hurting and losing leaves bad,” he said. “All of the corn is taking a beating now.”
Both corn and soybeans are at critical stages and need moisture to form grain. Corn silks are pollinating to form kernels on the ears and soybeans are starting to form pods. “If the ears don’t get pollinated, there’s no kernels,” he said.
He said the drought is reminiscent of the hot summer of 1988, when temperatures reached 100 degrees a dozen times and 90 or higher 51 times and only two inches of rain fell in June and July, according to Evening News records.
This year “comes close to what I’ve seen,” Mr. Smith said. “‘88 was really dry and the price of corn went up like it is now. But the difference was we had a lot of government corn in storage. There isn’t that reserve now, so it’s pretty serious. It could make grocery and meat prices higher.”