With harvest on the line, Arkansas farmers face back-to-back storm impacts

Lonoke County, Arkansas – Farmers are racing against Mother Nature to harvest their crops before the remnants of a hurricane make landfall in Arkansas for the second time in two weeks.

Carlisle farmer Brandon Parker said, “We think it’s going to go east of us but with hurricanes, you never know for sure.”

Parker, a farmer for around thirty years, remarked that he and his colleagues lose valuable time—time that is required for harvesting—when it rains.

“Compounded with the other hurricane, we have lost a lot of days of harvesting this month so far,” Parker stated.

According to Parker, it is uncommon for his crops to be affected by two hurricanes or tropical storms in a row.

He claimed that the last two consecutive hurricanes he could recall having an effect on his crops were in 2005.

“It’s been a long time but Katrina and Rita were some back-to-back, but they both affected us, but this one also,” Parker explained.

Rain and wind both have the potential to affect crop quality.

“Rain really affects the quality of the soybeans so we need to get the crops out of the field,” Parker stated.

Parker displayed the section of his field that remained wet from the rain that occurred around two weeks prior.

“Last hurricane and the rain we got roughly four inches so we have been muddy ever since,” Parker explained.

It isn’t going to dry. We deal with that the remainder of the time after it gets extremely saturated because the days are becoming shorter and cooler,” Parker stated.

For those who are unfamiliar with farming, Parker compared the act of collecting crops to that of mowing your yard.

“Farming is much like that because you can’t mow your lawn when it’s wet or muddy. Because of the dampness, we can only harvest during favorable weather,” Parker stated.

Parker stated that it’s unlikely that your purchases of vegetables from the grocery store will be affected.

However, Parker wants people to understand that farming in 2024 is not an easy job.

“This year has been extremely costly,” Parker remarked. “The yields are good but the expenses are up so it has been kind of a tough year for farming this year.”