ARCHBOLD WEATHER

Rains Take Bin Buster Corn Yield Off Table





Brush Creek was far out of its banks in this photo taken around noon on Saturday, June 27. Eric Richer, Fulton County Agricultural Extension Agent, said farms in the western half of Fulton County suffered more from the flooding.– photo by David Pugh

Brush Creek was far out of its banks in this photo taken around noon on Saturday, June 27. Eric Richer, Fulton County Agricultural Extension Agent, said farms in the western half of Fulton County suffered more from the flooding.– photo by David Pugh

A “bin buster” corn yield in Fulton County for 2015 has been taken off the table by the heavy rain that fell Saturday, June 27, Eric Richer, Fulton County agricultural extension agent, said Monday.

Farmers won’t know for sure what the impact of the wet spring is until October, when the combines begin the harvest.

On June 27, the Archbold wastewater treatment plant recorded 4.2 inches of rain, but some reports say total rainfall was six, to as high as eight inches. On Friday, June 26, 1.75 inches of rain were recorded.

Plant workers recorded a total of 10.1 inches of rain during the month of June, a new record, based on data going back to 1987.

Western Fulton County suffered the most, he said.

“I argue the western half of the county was wetter than the eastern half,” he said. “We had more than six inches of rainfall that caused significant ponding in some fields.

“It depended on how close you were to Brush Creek or the Tiffin River and their major tributaries.”

Some fields which never had ponded before showed large areas of standing water.

Richer said as one drives to the east, there is a little less crop damage.

Depending on the weather for the next 60 days, the rainfall situation may be mitigated.

“We have two months of really good production weather remaining in the summer. A lot of crops may recover and make average yields,” he said.

“It all depends on what happens in the next 60 days.

“We won’t see blockbuster yields like 2013 and 2014, but it will probably be better than 2012, the year we had the drought.”

Richer said some believe the six-inches-in-one-day rain is the second largest in area history.

“I haven’t seen a six-inch rain in my lifetime,” he said.

“That’s just a lot of water” that had nowhere to drain.

“God willing, we’ll have a normal growing season from here on out,” he said.

But there won’t be any records broken, he said, “except for the rainfall in the month of June.”


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