It is not a shock that it has been very dry lately. According to the Drought Monitor issued on September 26th, all of west-central Ohio is in at least moderate drought with severe drought to the north and southeast of Lima. Extreme and exceptional drought has ravaged much of central and southeastern Ohio. On Friday, I traveled to the Auglaize County Ohio State University Extension Office in Wapakoneta where I was told that topsoil conditions are not great.

One local farmer says he started harvesting a little over a week ago, and has been pleasantly surprised with his results. But for other farms, he says that he sees the affect that the dry weather had on the crops this year. 

As farmers try to bounce back from an unusually wet year in 2019, they are running into new problems for this year. The USDA says that last year, nearly 20 million acres of crops were prevented from being planted due to excessive flooding. The record-breaking losses led to more than four billion dollars in insurance claims across the country. But now, farmers are facing problems that can’t be insured.

2019 was a less than ideal season for growing crops, but how does this year compare? With temperatures increasing throughout the spring, it is a sign that planting season is here. Last year we saw excessive rainfall, causing fields to be flooded and crops destroyed. Rainfall has been down from last year, making for more favorable planting conditions this year.

Farmers are used to facing uncertain spring weather, but right now, they are also facing challenging ways of getting their necessary equipment to start their planting season. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, farmer Craig Shaw says almost everything related to business is being done over the phone, and he has seen three times as many phone calls come his way as a result. When picking up materials for spring planting, some stores will set the materials outside and do not want to handle cash. In addition to that, Shaw is trying to sell grain during a down market due to the coronavirus. But through perseverance and prayer, the Shaw family is confident they can get through this together.

Ready or not, it's harvest season for those brave farmers that battled Mother Nature this spring. With the extraordinarily wet spring this year, a lot of farmers faced the possibility of a poor yield this fall. However, the summer turned out to be pretty fair to farmers, and now it's time for them to find out the results of their hard work. Given the inconsistent growing year, one farmer is pretty optimistic about his potential yield for his corn, and he hopes his yield will be able to feed his large number of cattle throughout the winter.

Once again, farmers are looking to Mother Nature as they sit watching weather conditions affect their crops. After a wet and cold spring, pushing planting season back into late May and early June, the dryer conditions we're seeing now is starting to slow down the growth of those crops getting into the ground. Agriculture officials say the crops are looking okay but are a month behind because of the wet spring. What crops need now is above average temperatures and rain to catch up.

The clock is ticking for area farmers to get into their fields before they could start losing money on crops. Allen County grain farmer, Ben Bowsher, says his tractor has set pretty much idle this spring as the rains have kept him off of the fields. He says June 5, 2019, is the last date to get corn in the ground before he starts losing a percentage of his crop insurance guarantee.