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January 10, 2009

Farmers helped by recent rain

By Tiffany Green

Despite the recent heavy rainfall that flooded parts of Cullman, local farmers appear unaffected.

Hoagy Parrish, owner of the Cullman Stockyard, said he does not think all this rain will be bad for farmers.

“It’s sure good for the farmers. It’s more beneficial than detrimental,” Parrish said.

He said right now the farmers are just thankful for the rain because the state has been in a drought for so long.

“It’s never a perfect situation for farmers,” he said. “We are just thankful for all the rain.”

All this rain will eventually be good for the farmers he said.

“It’s not a disaster yet,” he said. “More than anything it’s beneficial.”

He said it is a mess for farmers right now, trying to feed the cattle in the soggy pastures, but in the long run it is good.

“Most baled a lot of hay so they had enough,” he said.

Parrish said the recent downpours should not affect the planting season, which is still a few months away.

“Unless it continues to rain like this, it will not affect the planting,” he said.

Parrish said some farmers are a bit behind in getting the field ready for planting season.

“Cotton farmers haven’t yet done the field work, so they are way behind,” he said.

Josh and Beth Haynes, of Fairview, said the rain has affected their winter planting.

“The rain does affect us in winter because it has delayed us in planting cover crops and winter grain,” Beth said.

She said they intended to do some winter planting and with this much rain, it makes it difficult to drive a tractor into a soggy field.

With the Spring planting season a few months away, Haynes hopes the fields will dry up enough to have a good crop.

“We will just have to wait and see,” she said.

Charles Pinkston, of the Cullman County Extension Office, said the rain has not seemed to worry farmers yet.

“The only problem farmers will be having right now is getting around in the pastures to feed the cattle because of the ground being so wet and spongy,” Pinkston said.

“Another problem could be the ponds washed out,” he said. “This rain will be a good test for the ponds. It could be a problem fixing ponds or repairing washed out roads.”

He said the planting season starts in March and he thinks by that time the ground will be dry enough to plant.

“I would expect it to dry out by then unless it keeps raining like this,” he said. “If it keeps raining like this it will be a problem.”

During the recent floods, no cattle deaths were reported, said Kelly Allen, assistant director of the Cullman County Emergency Management Agency.

He said there was a report of some calves struck in the middle of flooded pasture in Arkadelphia down Highway 91.

“They swam across the bay of water and are now safe,” Allen said. “The vet was an their way out there and by the time he made it the calves had swam to safety.”

Parrish said he had only heard of one instance were some cows may have been stuck in a flooded pasture.

‰ Tiffany Green can be reached by e-mail at tgreen@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 221.

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