Staff writer
For now, Kansas State Research and Extension agent Rickey Roberts has switched out of crisis mode, subduing his nerves about the state of Marion County crops.
“As bad as July was, August has started out great,” Roberts said. “It gives us some reason for some hope; it’s been a Godsend.”
“We were right on the cusp of having to bail something up,” Roberts added.
Last several rainfalls and nighttime temperatures in the upper 60s have brought soybeans back to their former lush green hue. Roberts said the tops of milo crops are looking less like pineapples, another promising sign.
“If you drive around you can see they’re doing better,” Roberts said. “But, crops for the most part always look better from the road.”
The extension believes beans especially will start making pods and creating new growth. Roberts worries whether that new growth will have time to develop by harvest.
“It’s almost a race against the clock,” Roberts said. “We just need to keep fingers crossed, and toes, and hope for a little more (rain). The rains have still been scattered and isolated.”
Roberts reiterated comments from two weeks ago that beans and milo should have very little chance of yielding a bumper crop. He said some farmers will still have to file insurance claims on their soybeans. However, Roberts was optimistic that farmers’ luck might be changing.
“We don’t know what we’re going to yield but we’re going to make something now,” he said.