The Daily News

Serving all of Raystown Country Huntingdon County, PA

Working around weather: Local farmers deal with challenges of cool, wet spring

by APRIL FEAGLEYSTAFF WRITER            Jun 19, 2018

This year’s slow crawl into a cool, wet spring is still causing headaches for area farmers contending with the effects of planting delays.

“This is our 42nd year farming,” said Bill Hoover of B&D Acres in Warriors Mark. “Every one of them has been different.”

Farmers are always at the mercy of Mother Nature throughout the growing season, but winter’s obstinate hold on the region prevented many local growers from getting into their fields on time.

“It’s been very rainy and the constant rain has made it hard to get in to weed,” said Brad Yohn of Minestream Farm, Shade Gap. “For planting, all of the crops are about four weeks behind where they were last year.”

Minestream Farms grows a variety of crops, including a variety of berries, broccoli, beets, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, sweet corn, other vegetables, pumpkins and gourds. The farm also offers pick-your-own strawberries for visitors to the site.

At B&D Acres, Hoover specializes in corn, soybeans, a variety of grains and pumpkins.

“Some of the crops were planted at a decent time and got off to a good start,” said Hoover. “Some crops were planted late and with this warm weather, they’re now growing.”

Certain plantings actually flourished in the cool, wet weather.

“Certain things like the water,” Yohn said. “Our broccoli and cabbage look good, but we got them in before we had a lot of rain, so they did well. They like the cool, damp weather.”

Strawberries, which draw people to roadside stands, farmers’ markets and “you pick” locations like Minestream Farm, can be directly impacted in both size and flavor by the weather conditions.

“Some of the berries will get bigger, but will have issues with mold or splitting. More rain creates a less sweet berry,” said Yohn. “The more sunlight, the sweeter the berry. It makes a smaller berry, where the rain will swell them, but they won’t be as sweet.”

Hoover said some initial corn plantings were a casualty of the weather as well.

“There were some fields that had to be replanted with corn because there was too much rain and it drowned them out,” he said. “At this point, though, a lot of the crops are starting to grow and there are some fields that are behind.”

Many potato growers also found themselves experiencing déja vu as they returned to the fields to plant once again.

“All of our potatoes were flooded out this year. We had to replant them two weeks ago. The rain saturated the ground and they rotted instead of sprouting,” said Yohn. “We had to plant our corn and it would be too wet. You would squeeze the seed and it would be rotten inside.”

The delays are significantly more than previous years.

“Typically, I could see normally being maybe a week or two behind, but right now, to be four weeks behind is pretty substantial,” Yohn said.

Careful soil management is credited with helping to counter some of the saturation issues on Hoover’s farm.

“We got our corn in at a decent time. With the cover crops we’ve been planting over the years, the soil is able to soak up the excess moisture better. It did fare better with the excess rain,” he said. “Organic matter in a lot of soil is 2-2.5 percent, but in a number of years we’ve been able to raise that up to 4 percent in our fields. That will hold much more water and allow it to percolate better. It’s more resilient to excess rain.”

April can be reached at afeagley@huntingdondailynews.com.

Area brief

Aug 16, 2018

Mount Union Farmers’ Market to host Kids’ Day

MOUNT UNION — The Mont Union Farmers’ Market will host a Kids’ Day event from 1-3 p.m. Friday, Aug. 17, with plenty of activities and fun for all ages.

Vickie McMullen of the Mount Union Community Library will host a story time featuring the book, “Our Community Garden,” and will plant seeds with the children. Each participant will receive a free book based on their age and grade level.

Vendor Kristy Auman of Wascally Wabbit Ranch will bring some special guest bunnies for children to pet.

Auman and Jill Yohn of The Minestream Farm have also designed a hunt for buried treasure. Kids will search through field corn for fruit and vegetable eraser treasures.

Avarie Rhodes will offer a presentation on Crayola’s Color- Cycle program, which recycles markers which might otherwise end up in a landfill. Rhodes will hand out bags for kids to take home for them to put their dried up markers and broken crayons.

Kristy Knouse from Reklaimed Vines will be doing a fruit stomping demonstration and a wool spinning demonstration may be provided as well.