Farmers struggle to grow crops in heat with little rainfall this summer
Farmers struggle to grow crops in heat with little rainfall this summer
Fort Wayne-area farmers are hopeful for rainfall and mild temperatures in the near future, but the heat stress continues to hurt their produce.
While some places across our region have seen rain, others haven't been so lucky..due to these dry conditions, some farmers are struggling to keep their crops alive..fox 55's mallory beard spoke with some local farmers to see how they're dealing with the lack of rain.
Summer is in full gear.
That mean less rain and more sunshine.
But that also means more problems for farmers depending on water for produce.
Joshua cockram//josh's jungle t has caused us to water a lot more than necessary.osh cockram has only had his garden since february.
And since we e transitioned to summer, heat stress and even bugs have taken a toll on his produce.joshua cockram//josh's jungince freeze hard enough and long enough, a lot of the pests did not die in the winter like they normally do and they just survived and they just started attacking stuff a lot sooner than normal.ikkal hodges is running into the same problems on his 13 acre farm.mikkal hodges he flea beetles have been really bad, and that the damage that they to do to the mustard greens and kale.nd it may only get worse mikkal hodgemikkal hodges f it does get up close to 100 like some of the computer models are showing, some people who not gotten rain are going to and by bad situation, hodge is referring to: mikkal hodge rop failure.odge says an average summer day of ninety degrees evaporates a half inch of water per acre everyday.
That farm if hodge soaked up 27,000 gallons the last time it rained at the end of june... 14,000 gallons were gone the next day.
Farmers like hodge and cockram are hopeful for rainfall and more mild temperatures, but the stressful reality remains... mikkal h get we don rain, we could potentially lose part of what is out there if not majority of what is growing out there.n fort wayne, i mallory beard, fox 55 news.
