Dateline: May 17, 2007

Rainfall brings welcome delays to planting
By Anndria Kidd, Clarendon Enterprise

Recent rainfall has brought some “welcomed delays” as this year’s planting season gets underway for local farmers.

Fifty-year Cooperative Observator for the National Weather Service, Tommie Saye, has reported 10.98” of rain so far for this year compared to 5.41” to date one year ago.

Donley County farmer Bob White said the rainfall has been a benefit on this year’s crops.

“Mother Nature does a much better job watering than irrigation does, and farmers have not had to pull as much water from the underground aquifers as they did last year,” White said.

Although the rainfall has put a pause in some farmers’ planting season, White said. “It has been a welcomed delay.”

 The only time so far this year that White has had to start pivots to water was to cut in chemical to incorporate herbicides. This has saved a lot of money and resources in comparison with last year’s preparation for planting season.

Donley County Extension Agent Leonard Haynes agrees that the recent rainfall has brought several postponements to this year’s planting season.

“Farmers are having to wait for the ground to dry up before they are able to start planting,” Haynes said.

Even though Haynes said the setbacks have slowed down the planting process, he does believe there are several benefits from the recent rainfall.

“We have the soil moisture that we haven’t had in the past several years, and farmers are saving a lot on fuel cost by not having to run irrigation motors so early on in the year,” Haynes said.

In studies performed last year, Haynes said based on pumping cost per hour, it cost $2.85 to run a natural gas irrigation motor, and $6.85 per hour to run a diesel motor. It can take several days of constant running to irrigate an entire circle. These figures were based when natural gas was at $6 per CCF and diesel cost $2.30 per gallon.

“The benefits of the moisture definitely outweigh the downsides of the rain delays.”

Haynes said farmers should be done planting peanuts by June 1 and cotton no later than June 15.

Some of the crops being planted at this time include cotton, cane hay, sorghum silage, and a variety of peanuts.