Farmers dealt rough hand with this summer's wet weather

YOUNGSTOWN — Ward Campbell doesn’t gamble at the casino, but he does gamble every day on his 1,000 acres of farmland in Ellsworth Township.

This year has dealt Campbell a rough hand.

“We just have to get by and hope things are better next year,” Campbell said.

Excessive rainfall in June pushed back Campbell’s hay harvest, interfered with fertilizing the corn and drowned some of his crops.

“We should have a second crop [of hay] harvested and we haven’t been able to get the first crop completely harvested,” Campbell said. “The ground is so wet we can’t get on it to mow it. We need 10 days of nice weather to be able to mow the ground while it’s dry.”

Campbell doesn’t know if he will get those 10 dry days.

Eric Wilhelm, chief meteorologist at 21 WFMJ-TV, The Vindicator’s broadcast partner, expects the second half of July to be drier than the first.

For the complete story, read Thursday's Vindicator and Vindy.com