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There is an old adage, “Dry weather will scare you, but it is the wet weather that will put you out of business.” And that is exactly what happened this year for local tobacco farmers.

The drought early in the summer, followed by ten days of torrential rain, proved to be too much for many of their crops to overcome. “I’m guessing we are going to come up at least thirty percent short of our anticipated yield, while others are saying around forty percent,” said Keith Fulcher of Fulcher Brothers Farms as he looked on while crews were pulling the crop on land in Blounts Creek. “It has been about as extreme as you could imagine. On top of the terribly dry weather and then torrential rains, we also had to cope with two or three hail storms. I don’t know how the crop has been able to do what it has based on what it has gone through.”

Fulcher said the growth of his crop was stunted because of the intense heat and lack of rain. This meant the crop never got the height it needed, and the leaves never matured as they should. “At the time we thought we were going to have a poor quality crop, but a big crop nonetheless,” said Fulcher. “But with all of the rain and then the hail it just couldn’t take it. There were all kinds of places around the fields where the crop literally drowned and just flopped and hung down the stock and dried up before we could get to it.”

Beaufort County extension director Rod Gurganus said tobacco can handle the hot, dry weather better than corn and soybeans. And even though the rain was a welcome sight, too much is counterproductive.

“When the soil becomes saturated and full of water, there is no oxygen at all between the soil particles,” said Gurganus. “No air in the soil becomes the death knell for a crop like tobacco. The ultimate goal is to have nice heavy leaves, but unfortunately, that just wasn’t possible with the extreme conditions we have had this year.”

As for the corn crop, the words that Fulcher and Gurganus used were “decimated” and a “complete disaster.”

“This is the worst I’ve seen since 1985,” said Fulcher. “I’m guessing we will be about 30 percent of what we normally average. Right now myself and other farmers are just storing the harvested corn in our bins with the hope that the prices will go up. At today’s prices even if we had a bumper crop, we would still only be able to break even.”

“The weather plays such a critical role in the development cycle of corn,” added Gurganus. “Any stress placed on the corn, when it is six inches high, will have a big impact on the yield of the crop. This is everything from the total number of rows on an ear to the number of kernels on each. And though it was a very bleak year in Beaufort County, farmers just east of us in Hyde County had some of the best corn yields they have ever had. We attribute that to more timely rains and soil type.”

Gurganus and Fulcher noted it may still be a few weeks before they can fully assess the total damage inflicted on the tobacco and corn crops. The verdict is also still out on the cotton and soybean crops.