Farmers: It’s too late to salvage some crops

Ike Wilson

WTOP 

No amount of rainfall at this point in the year will help salvage corn. It’s too late, local farmers said.

“It can rain until the cows come home, it won’t help corn,” Frederick grain farmer Gareth Harshman said Tuesday.

A successful corn patch needs moisture, but the lack of rain has forced farmers to cut their corn three weeks early to be used for silage, Harshman said.

“And my late beans are really hurting,” he said. “They need a drink of water right now for them to mature in the pod.”

Corn and soybean, two main products that make up livestock feed, will produce lower yields because of the drought, farmers said.

The Washington Council of Governments’ drought coordination technical committee, which includes Frederick County, has unanimously recommended a drought watch declaration be issued, said Rick Weldon, Frederick’s executive assistant to the mayor.

The city is working on language to convey that message to residents today, Weldon said.

Frederick’s water treatment superintendent Craig Lambert is on the committee, which means the city will be privy to information on drought conditions, Weldon said.

Two days of heavy rainfall about four weeks ago did little to alleviate the dry conditions affecting parts of Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and Washington, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which provides scientific information to manage water, biological, energy and mineral resources.

In July, water levels in three water-table wells in Frederick, Carroll and Wicomico counties were at the lowest July levels on record. The lowest stream flows are clustered in Frederick, Montgomery and Washington counties and the southern part of the Delmarva Peninsula, according to the USGS.

The lack of rain also means livestock have no pasture for grazing, so their food is being supplemented by hay — a measure usually reserved for the winter.