Farmer Chris Mobley's tractor raises more dust than crops as he prepares for planting. The prolonged drought is being blamed on the La Nina weather condition over the Pacific that steers moisture away from the South. No increase in rain is expected until August. CHRIS THELEN/STAFF

Growers set to plant in dry soil

Web posted May 10, 2000

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By Mark Mathis
Staff Writer

Like many farmers in Burke County and the surrounding area, Cleve Mobley said he doesn't know where to begin when talking about the current drought choking the region.

The lack of rain has created an air of uncertainty as he and other farmers prepare to plant cotton and soybean seeds an inch beneath dry soil later this month.

``We're having to plant in dry dirt, and it's not going to come up till it rains,'' he said. ``Everything that could be bad is bad.''

For the year, Burke County is about 4 to 5 inches off the yearly rain average. In the past 24 months, the entire county, on average, has a 30-inch rain deficit, said Richard McDaniel, an agent with the Burke County Extension Service. The outlook for the coming months is not much better.

``We've got a week to 10 days that if we don't get some rain or moisture we could have a disaster,'' he said.

Both Georgia and South Carolina are expected to extend their two-year droughts into this summer as the region progresses into La Nina season.

La Nina is a weather condition that brings unusually cool waters over the Pacific Ocean. It displaces the position of the jet stream so spring storms track away from Southern states and skirt the Midwest.

Click on image for larger version. STAFF

``What to me makes this year even worse is that it seems every year there is hope that there will be a decent amount of rainfall,'' said Sid Mullis, an agent with the Richmond County Extension Service. ``But this year, everywhere you read or hear the drought will run until July.''

Temperatures are expected to be higher than normal in the Augusta area for the next month, with precipitation hovering around normal, according to the National Weather Service in Columbia.

But even if the drought forecast was more optimistic, farmers still have the obstacles of low crop prices and high overhead caused by high gas prices, Mr. Mullis said.

``We've seen the last two years plenty of farmers go out of business,'' he said. ``You add another year to it and this could be the last year for people who were hanging on, and that's a sad outlook.''

Farmers who use irrigation systems to offset the drought incur not only more cost for themselves but could also affect water reserves for an entire county, said Greg Henderson of the Edgefield County (S.C.) Extension Service.

``With the water reserve we have and our peach producers having long invested in irrigation systems, we can produce a good crop of fruit, but those water reserves are finite without rain,'' he said. ``There are no deep wells in Edgefield County. It's all surface water.''

High cattle prices have alleviated some of the pain felt by local farmers but not enough to solve the problem of low crop prices and agriculture yields.

Cotton currently is priced at 61 cents a pound, and corn, wheat and soybeans go for $2.46, $2.69 and $5.67 a pound, respectively, on the national level. Local prices are usually about 30 cents less because long-distance shipping and storing expenses aren't needed.

``We're getting 30-year lows on our crops,'' Mr. Mobley said. ``Here we are, a young generation of farmers trying to make a living, and the prices are where they were when my father was here.''

Reach Mark Mathis at (706) 823-3227.