This summer has turned the drought misfortune around with several inches of precipitation which has taken Greene County out of drought levels and back into normal conditions.

However, several severe storms in the area has caused some crop damage.  Last year, it was the southern portion of the county that saw field flooding and standing water in crop fields.  This past June, several farms in the northern part of the county got hit with unfortunate circumstances.

Paton farmer Pat Fields says some of his fields suffered hail damage and there was some standing water in other parts.  He talks about what affects he’s seen this year on both his corn and soybeans crops from the recent severe storms.

“The corn don’t seem to be showing the stress of too much water as bad as the (soy)beans do.  My (soy)beans are really falling back and showing the adverse effects of too much rain.”

And now that it’s too late in the year to replant, Fields jokingly said he’ll need to drink more but is hoping to save whatever crops he can from the damaged areas.

“They’re (soy)beans, they’ll come back.  They grow a little back and get a little taller.  We’ll salvage something out of it, it’s just not going to be really that great.”

Churdan farmer Tim Towers says they received hail on his cropfields but adds that so much rainfall has allowed his corn crops to surpass their mark this time last year and are over six feet tall.

He hoping for a few more days of rain in August, but adds that if it doesn’t rain anymore this summer, then what they’ve received so far should help get them through the rest of the growing season.

The biggest jobs left to do are spraying fungicide on soybeans to keep them from getting diseased and dying and weed control.