COLUMBIANA COUNTY After a rainy spring, area crops are warming to better weather

Crops thrive with hot days and warm nights.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
After a dismal, soggy spring planting season, area farmers are praying the three Hs of Ohio summertime will prevail.
Farmers preparing for the Columbiana County Fair are hopeful the warm, dry weather will continue, but not just to make the fair experience an enjoyable one. Hazy, hot and humid days and nights have spurred crop growth in recent days, said Ernie Oelker, Columbiana County extension agent.
After two years of poor growing seasons, farmers fought an uphill battle trying to find dry days to plant in a spring dominated by heavy rain.
Thriving
Corn and soybeans planted late are thriving with the recent warm weather, especially the warm nights, Oelker said. Crops do well if temperatures at night are in the 50s or above, he said.
Oelker said corn production is a few weeks ahead of schedule. He said he recently did some testing on leaves from corn plants that can't be done until silk appears on the plants. He did the leaf test last year Aug. 2.
Farmers harvesting wheat reported crop yields down, primarily because of wheat scab, a fungus. Ohio farmers can get yields as high as 110 bushels per acre with a good wheat crop, and area yields are in the 40- to 60-bushel range, Oelker said. Farmers also have been taking oats off fields in recent days, he said.
Hay
Although the rain reduced the quality of hay, farmers have been able to cut and bale hay twice so far this summer, Oelker said.
Because of the reduced quality of hay, many livestock farmers will buy hay from the Western United States to supplement winter hay supply, and that will increase operational costs, he said.
Many farmers are just now paying for expenses from two years ago because the previous two growing seasons were poor, he said.
Most dairy farmers have been getting expenses paid and tackling projects put aside while milk prices were low the past two years, he said. Cheese prices have been falling recently, which could be a sign that the record-high milk prices won't hold much longer, he said.
Oelker will be at the Columbiana County Fair, which runs Aug. 2-8, and have a display with details on an ongoing manure application research project he has conducted on corn crops with Fairfield Township farmer Myron Wehr.
Won an award
Oelker's poster explaining the research project recently won an award at the national meeting of county extension agents in Orlando.
Oelker and Wehr have been conducting research for several years to see how different techniques for planting corn and application of manure and other fertilizers affect crop growth.