Due to a low amount of rainfall, agriculture specialists and farmers in the Jay community are anticipating a lower crop yield when it comes to cotton and peanuts, the two primary grown crops in the area.
“It has definitely been real sporadic,” said John Atkins, an agriculture specialist with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences in Santa RosaCounty.
Atkins said this year’s infrequent rain fall can contribute to one farmer’s crop and completely miss the acreage next door. Peanuts hurt the most without the regular moisture, he said.
“Peanuts cannot develop in bone dry soil,” Atkins said. “The plants will then go into survival mode.”
Longtime Jay farmer Mickey Diamond, who farms 1800 acres of both peanuts and cotton, said he, along with other Jay farmers, is expecting a low yield this year.
“The yield is going to be down tremendously especially in peanuts,” he said. “They stayed wilted for too long.”
Diamond also gave an example of how little rain his crop has this summer.
“We got one area that had only 9/10th’s of an inch of rain in July all month and then so far this month, it’s only had 9/10ths,” he said. “I got places right now that have only got 4/10ths. You can ride by a field that looks good and go two miles down the road and it looks terrible and it just because of the rain.”
Although some Jay farmers planted their crops later than usual due to weather, Atkins said most farmers are past the point of optimum production, meaning rainfall at this point would have little affect on this year’s yield. Atkins said many Jay farmers only expecting to bring in half of their expected yield.
While the crops could be different elsewhere in Jay, Diamond said he is also expecting a low cotton and peanut yields. However, Diamond will not know for sure until the harvesting is complete.
“We do know that by looking at our cotton and our peanuts that the crop is down from last year in this area…in some areas it is not,” Diamond said. “It may not be as bad as we think.”
The final outcome of this year’s crop will not be known until the farmers have completed harvesting.
In addition to leaving the crop stressed, the dry conditions can also lead to other problems for the crop like bug infestations and damaging fungi.
Diamond said his operation has regularly needed to spray for spider mites in both peanuts and cotton.
The dry weather is also kind to cotton, Diamond said. The dry weather causes the cotton plants to develop early.
“It effects the development of the bolls, cause it doesn’t have the moisture and so it hurts the grade and it hurts the yield,” he said.
Although the weather conditions are not where they need to be, Diamond said he has witnessed worse weather conditions. Diamond said dealing with the weather is just part of being a farmer.
“You got to have a lot of faith when you are a farmer, you have to have faith in what you are doing and the good Lord is going to bless it and take care of it cause all we do is plant.” he said.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Lack of rain affecting crops in Jay