Rain Delay For Alabama Farmers

Atmore Rain Many farmers are late planting this year because late spring rains are making the ground too wet.

by Chad Petri

Published: Thu, May 14, 2009 - 4:25 pm CST Last Updated: Thu, May 14, 2009 - 4:27 pm CST

With his planter rolling through his fields, Jason Weber is doing something not a lot of farmers are doing in Atmore. He's planting soy beans.

“Plenty of rain in the last 3 to four weeks we'd like it to stop for a week or so, so we can get some work done,” says Jason Weber. He picks up a clump of dirt to show me the problem. “This is really too wet right here, I think we can get away with it.” Weber says he's taking a risk by planting in fields that are soaked. He says they could lose the soy beans if the rain keeps coming on strong, but he can't afford to keep delaying the inevitable.

“You wind up with a lot more work than you have people to get it done and you have to choose between planting one crop that has to go in the ground and harvesting one that needs to come out,” says Jason Weber. What they're experiencing here is happening on many farms across the state. Rain's delaying the planting of soy, peanuts and cotton.

“May 1st in Southwest Alabama this is the optimum time to plant cotton and it's been too wet, we plant because of the hurricane season later,” says Regional Extension Agronomist Richard Petcher. While this field on Jason Weber’s property is just barely suitable for planting, other parts are just too much of a mess to deal with. Some parts are still covered with water

“I got down over the slope and it just sank so it'll be about 2, 3, 4 days until we can even think about going back into that field,” says Jason’s father James Weber who is the farm’s co-owner.
Despite less than ideal conditions, the Webers say they’re cautiously optimistic about this season

“It's going to be rare to loose a crop for not being able to put it in the ground because it's too wet, eventually it's going to dry out the question is what kind of situation we'll be in when it gets there,” says Jason Weber. He says further delays mean 14 hour work days to get all the tasks on the farm done.

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