Tobacco Latest Victim of Region's Drought

Source from:  By Gregory A. Hall ghall@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal 09/28/2007

Unlike most crops, which need a lot of water to grow, "tobacco loves a dry start," said Gary Palmer, a University of Kentucky tobacco production specialist. But it also needs rain later in the growing season, which didn't materialize -- making tobacco another victim of a drought that has damaged corn and soybeans, browned pastures, dried up hay and forced livestock owners to search for water and cull their herds. The trace amount of rain Shelby County farmer Paul Hornback said he got yesterday wasn't enough to make a difference. "It's going to take inches of rain over several days to fill up ponds, to get the moisture back up in the soils so things can make it through the winter," he said. "This is certainly not a good year for anybody around," said Hornback, a row-crop and livestock farmer who expects his receipts to be half of what he gets in a normal year. Kentucky remains in severe drought along with the southern third of Indiana, according to a federal monitor. The state and Army Corps of Engineers announced earlier this week that water from 13 Kentucky reservoirs would be available to farmers and firefighters. Producers will bear the brunt of the drought more than consumers, UK agricultural economist Lee Meyer said, in part because the drought is concentrated in the Southeast. Through Tuesday night, the latest figures available, Kentucky was in the midst of its third-driest January-September period in 113 years, said UK meteorologist Tom Priddy. Only 1930 and 1941 were drier, he said. The 2007 total of 26.25 inches of rain -- 10 inches short of the normal of 36.38 -- is approaching the 1936 total of 26.53 inches. That summer was worse, Priddy said, because it had more days with temperatures in the 90s. "Unfortunately, the outlook is just not real positive," Priddy said. September and October normally aren't particularly rainy in Kentucky, he said. Showers Tuesday night and yesterday morning weren't widespread enough to have a significant effect statewide, Priddy said. Federal projections for yields are down for the two Kentucky crops that produced the most revenue for farmers last year. Corn yields are down 26 bushels per acre from last year and soybean yields are projected to be down 14 bushels. Indiana's soybean yield is projected to be down 7 bushels, but its corn crop was not hurt as much by drought. Initially, the drought wasn't a problem for tobacco. Priddy said farmers may want to open the barn doors at night to allow moisture in. But "with the temperatures and humidity we've had, it's almost fighting a losing battle," he said. The prices farmers get from tobacco companies could be hurt because of the drought effects with the first down crop of the post-buyout era without federal price supports. "This is the first big test," Palmer said. With livestock, many farmers are feeding hay or substitutes to cattle weeks earlier than usual. Shelby County cattle farmer Mike Armstrong said he's been feeding hay on and off for the last 40 days. For the first time, he also has resorted to feeding corn stalks with a protein supplement. "I can tell you right now they like them," he said. Armstrong hopes to be able to make it through the winter on hay reserves by culling his herd. "It's the worst time in my 50 years that I remember," he said. Tom Creech, owner of Lexington-based Charles T. Creech Inc., which supplies hay to horse farms, said prices generally are up to one and a half times what they were last year. "It's expensive everywhere," he said. Besides a lack of rain in some places and more than usual in others in the Midwest, Creech said high milk prices mean dairy farmers can pay more for hay -- pushing up prices generally. Creech said he's trying to keep his prices down by not taking on new customers. New customers would mean he'd have to pay more and pass that cost on to existing customers, he said. Enditem