Damage Control - Earl and the Crop Harvest

Even as we speak Hurricane Earl is bearing down on the outer banks of NC.  What kind of impact will the hurricane have on the crops there?

Dr. Ron Heiniger is Professor of Crop Systems at NCSU. He tells us the condition of the grains crop in northeastern NC is not good after a long hot summer.

“The crop varies quite a bit. We had extreme heat this summer and that had a big impact on corn. If you got lucky and got some rain you were alright… parts of Hyde county and Dare county got some rain and corn in those areas the has looked real good… then you get into places a little farther inland and the corn crop is absolutely miserable there. A lot of corn probably won’t… well some of it hasn’t been harvested… most of it will be harvested but it will be a pretty mediocre to poor yield…”

Dr. Heiniger says that Earl will indeed have an impact on that corn crop.

“It’s the typical scenario out east here. Apart from the hurricane threatening farmers are rushing to get corn out of the field as quickly as they can and of course their ability to harvest it is lacking as far as storage…”

Are the rains coming with Earl too little, too late?

“The better corn in Hyde county will probably be out of harms way. But we have a lot of corn northeast Pasquotank Camden and Currituck counties that’s susceptible to being loss…”

Dr. Heiniger says Earl is a wake up call for farmers.

“Earl signifies a change in our weather here. We’ve gone from a hot dry summer here and now with these storms lining up they’re going to break that pattern and we’re going to end up now in a rainy, stormy period for the next 30 to 45 days is what I’m a fearin’… “
 

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