Farmers, experts: Summer drought will lower crop yields this autumn

CENTRE CO., Pa. (WJAC) — The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection placed a number of counties in our region under a "drought watch" this week.

As we enter the autumn harvest season, some area farmers and experts from the DEP and the Pennsylvania State University told 6 News on Friday this dry summer means crops — for example, corn — could grow shorter stalks, grow smaller ears, and yield less produce overall.

In a region like ours — whose economy relies heavily on agriculture — this year's harvest, according to some farmers, won't be as fruitful.

For family farms like Harner Farm in Ferguson Township, they say you grow what you can grow.

"We grow a little bit of everything: apples, peaches, pumpkins, a lot of sweet corn this time of year," said farmer Chris Harner. "So, the sweet corn probably got hit the hardest, you know, yields are down. But, we had a couple little showers in between there that kept it going. So, at least we have something."

Asked if he thinks this dry summer will impact the autumn harvest at all, Harner replied, "Oh yeah. You know, yields will be down, the size on the fruit will be down. It definitely had an impact on everything."

"This year's gonna be a tough year for farmers," said Chris Houser, the assistant director of agronomy and natural resources programs at Penn State Extension.

Dry summers like this in Pennsylvania aren't completely outside the norm, however. That's according to Susan Weaver, a drought coordinator for the DEP.

"I would say we've experienced this type of dryness before," Weaver told 6 News on Friday.

"Pennsylvania does cycle in and out of dry spells. This summer we are seeing — with the indicators that we monitor: precipitation, departures, stream, flow levels, groundwater levels, soil moisture, and how our public water suppliers are doing — we've seen a dryness that's been developing and with being cautious, we implemented a 'drought watch' declaration two days ago."

That "drought watch" applies to a number of counties, including Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, and Cameron in our region. Weaver said it means people in those counties should pay attention to how much water they use.

"We have not had a significant drought, where a drought emergency is declared, since 2002," recalled Weaver.

"I would say our economic impacts this year are gonna be huge," observed Houser.

He explained that we shouldn't understate these arid conditions.

"Our yields, I expect to be down anywhere between at 30 and 80%, depending on where you're located. And sometimes the farmers' ground makes a difference, you know, in these shale ridges, it's a lot harder to produce high-yielding crops."

According to Houser, corn and soybeans are some of the more common crops grown in Central Pennsylvania.

"This year, farmers have seen the highest-priced nitrogen that we've seen in — in my history," he noted. "And corn takes a lot of nitrogen to grow. We have high fuel costs. We've...also had some very high herbicide costs this year.

"So, farmers will struggle with low yields in the drought this year," Houser added.

But luckily for area consumers, he explained to us that prices for commodities such as corn and soybeans are really set nationally.

"Oftentimes, farmers don't get to choose...to raise the price for their corn or soybeans or hay crop."

And as Harner told us, you have to stay positive.

"Our supply was impacted in the spring with the frost," he said. "So, we had that, then we had the drought."

"But the one good thing out of the drought: everything tastes a little better."

6 News will keep you updated on any changes to the "drought watch" conditions in our region.