Heavy rainfall brings extra work for farmers

JACKSON, Tenn. — The high amount of rain that West Tennessee has received has left some farmers looking for other options when planting.

WBBJ Storm Team 7 Chief Meteorologist Tom Meiners says our year-to-date rainfall has been 29 inches. The next closest reading was back in 1973 when a wetter start to the year saw 30.4 inches.

“With a lot of rain, what’s going to happen is you are going to plant your seeds, and if you get a lot of rain and water sitting on top of the seeds, it will actually rot the seeds out and kill the seeds where they won’t germinate and produce a viable plant,” said Jake Mallard, an extension agent with the UT Institute of Agriculture.

Mallard says replanting is something farmers avoid because farmers then have to spend more time in the field and get more seed.

“We are looking at shifting over from going from corn to planting cotton and full-season beans, so we need some warmer weather to plant our beans and our cotton,” Mallard said.

Mallard also said farmers try to plant in optimal conditions to give the seeds the best chance to come out of the ground and produce a plant.

Mallard said that, at this time of the year, farmers typically wait to plant until mid-April which is, on average, the last frost of the season.

“The rain has hit and the cool weather has dropped down, and a lot of people have got their burn-down out on the cotton ground getting ready to plant cotton,” Mallard said.

Farmers’ other options are planting seeds that have a higher energy to get out of the ground.

Mallard also says there is a lot that goes into farming including a combination of science, chemistry and economics — science and chemistry when growing and producing your crop and economics when marketing.

Mallard also says rain is a good thing and he hopes there is no shortage of rain later in the spring and into the summer.