BOLTON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
As the severe drought continues in the nation's mid-section, obviously the overall outlook for the country's farmers is grim. But because of the rains that fell here in July, by and large, our crops are generally in much better shape in Mississippi.
"It's been pretty good. As far as we can tell everything's good. The crops look good. Everything's been going our way."
That's Danny Mashburn's assessment of how things are shaping up at this point in the growing season at the farm he and his dad run in Bolton.
"We've been blessed this year," said Mashburn.
"It didn't have to be that way. Just a state or two over, it's a different story entirely. The unrelenting heat and drought have devastated crops over some of the most productive acreage in the nation. Danny saw that for himself on a recent trip to St. Louis. The fields looked pretty dismal there.
"Not near ‘bout as well as ours. And I was proud when I got back home to see all the grass was green. All the cotton and corn and soybeans look good compared to what it looked like up there."
The difference is the rain. We got it in increments of inches at a time in July. So much so that it was too much in some places. Sending Cole's Creek in Jefferson County, that you could normally wade across hardly getting your feet wet this time of year, out of its banks last weekend.
But because of the beneficial rains, this Hinds County cornfield looks great, in spite of the fact that it looks dead. It's supposed to look dry this time of the year.
"You just don't want to see that early in the year, I mean early in the season," said Mashburn.
The cotton crop in Hinds County fields looks as good as you'd want to see at this stage in its growth.
"Cotton looks good, it's fruiting up well."
And the soybeans are equally is good shape producing pods and almost ripe.
"The only thing that we're, a lot of the farmers are worried about is the river. The river is drying up as you know. And the barges can't move on the river and a lot of people, you know, are kind of wondering what we are going to do with soybeans and corn. Looks like we're going to have to do some trucking," said Mashburn.
But that's a good problem in a drought year, how to get the crops we are able to produce to market. What a difference being a state or two over makes.
So, although overall around the country, this has not been what you'd call a stellar year for agriculture, but here in Mississippi the variables seem to have broken in favor of our farmers. Life does that for you every once in a while.
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WLBT 3 - Fox 40
