Rainfall Puts a Damper on Farming Activity

Arkansas farmers are only a couple of weeks into summer and already they say it has been a tough one. But it is not because of the heat, they say heavy rainfall amounts are keeping the fields we and keeping them from working. After 35 years, raising vegetables has become a serious business for Abraham Carpenter. "Most people think farmers just go out there and dig in the dirt a little bit, but farmers really are the background of the whole nation," he said. But since the dirt has turned to mud for many farmers, the business hasn`t been so kind. "This crop alone, that I`ve lost already, I`ve spent over $250,000 to $300,000," he said. Carpenter says out of his last 30 days, 21 of them have been rainy, keeping him from planting any more crops, in place of the ones he`s already lost. "I`ve planted some crops for almost the 2nd and 3rd time, and it still destroyed it," Carpenter adds. His farm is in Grady, about 30 minutes south of Pine Bluff. The National Weather Service says rain totals in Pine Bluff for the last week of June were .88 inch above normal. The water is deeper in Stuttgart, where farmers say 4.5 inches of rain fell for the same period, more than 3.5 inches above normal. Good news for the rice farmers, is bad news for farmer Ward Bitely. "You can`t get into the field to cultivate the field. So you wee the grass and the weeds come up into the field causing two problems," Bitely said. Those weeds are taking soil nutrients from the crops and causing lower yields, an equation for lower prices. "If they`re harvesting cotton, right now, you`re looking at 54 to 55 cents a pound and that`s just not going to make a lot of money," he said. And if the water doesn`t evaporate soon, farmers say their hopes for this summer`s crop will.