VALLEY CROPS Harvest was OK despite rain

Heavy cloud cover kept crops from receiving needed sunlight.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
Although heavy rains and cloudy days through much of the spring and summer shortened the growing season, area agriculture experts said the 2003 harvest was better than expected.
Mahoning and Shenango valleys farmers feared the worst in midsummer, when torrential rains left many fields of half-grown crops several feet under water.
Steve Hudkins, The Ohio State University's agriculture extension agent in Trumbull County, called corn yields "decent" despite the slow start and the wet conditions through most of the growing season.
He said Trumbull County farmers planted soybeans late because of the wet weather. Then the bean crop was hit by an early frost.
In general, Hudkins said the extensive rain made fields soggy, and clouds kept crops from receiving the needed warmth from the sun.
Still in fields
Hudkins said some farmers are still trying to take corn off fields. They're waiting for the ground to freeze because they can't take heavy equipment into muddy fields.
Most soybeans are shelled and corn for silage was taken off early in the season, he said.
For silage, the whole corn plant is harvested and chopped into pieces about 2 inches long.
Silage provides protein and roughage primarily for dairy herds, he said.
Bill Chess, a Penn State University farm management extension agent in Lawrence County, said Lawrence County farmers are doing fairly well with the harvest.
He thought soybean yields would be down because of late planting and lack of sunlight, but it appears that the bean crop in Lawrence fared better than expected.
Hay crop suffered
Chess said the hay crop suffered the most, which means that farmers will be looking to buy hay or supplement livestock feeding with soybeans and grains.
He said dairy farmers in particular will pay more to feed their herds. Dairy farmers have to adhere to specific nutrient requirements for their herds to ensure quality milk production, he said.
When the hay crop is poor the nutrients are reduced, so dairy farmers will have to purchase hay from other regions of the United States, and may also have to supplement their herds' diets with soybean meal. Both solutions add significant expense to the cost of feeding their herds, he said.
Ernie Oelker, The Ohio State University's extension agent for Columbiana County, said the Mahoning Valley corn crop was a surprise, but soybeans here were disappointing.
He said corn survived better than expected and dried well. Soybeans, however, didn't get enough warmth and sunlight to produce well. The plants are to turn brown before the beans are harvested, and many crops remained green well into October, he said.
He said farmers who don't use the no-till method of planting still have crops in the fields because the fields are wet. "No-till" means they don't plow fields. If fields aren't plowed it takes longer for the ground to become saturated, he said.
A cold winter with snow cover is good for the winter wheat crop, which was planted in the fall and will be harvested in mid-July. The snow cover protects the plants from being damaged by winter wind, he said.
Although crop yields for 2003 won't be reported until 2004, crop information and other statistical data for Ohio and Pennsylvania for 2002 and previous years is available at the National Agricultural Statistics Service Web site. It's www.nass.usda.gov/oh for Ohio and www.nass.usda.gov/pa for Pennsylvania.
tullis@vindy.com