Did recent rain across SC help farmers struggling during the drought?

SAINT MATTHEWS, SC (WIS) — With drought conditions around the Palmetto State drastically improving following Debby last week, one local farmer said the recent rain has been a mixed bag for his crops.

This week, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources’ Drought Response Committee downgraded drought designations to normal for 36 counties.

Last month, all 46 counties in the state had designations, and 15 were in the midst of severe droughts.

• READ MORE: Federal assistance, emergency loans available to some Midlands farmers amid drought conditions

One of those counties was Calhoun.

Chad Lyons, whose family has owned and operated a 2,300-acre farm in the county for more than a century, said the roughly 10 inches of rain that fell in the last week has not entirely been beneficial.

“It’s going to be a difficult year, and I think it’ll be a difficult year for many people, but we’ve been farming for over 100 years, hopefully we can keep going,” he said.

Lyons works alongside his 72-year-old father, uncle and three employees.

His father, a 50-year-old farmer, said this summer reminded him of similar drought conditions in 1986.

“In 1986 it put a lot of farmers out,” Lyons said. “Luckily we’ve come out of the dry stage that they never did in the late 80s.”

Lyons said it is “definitely better to have the rain” than not, but it has caused him to lose some of his cotton crop, as it has drowned out.

The dry corn crop has been impacted by the double whammy brought forth by the drought and heavy rain from Debby, as well.

It was already almost a total loss, but the rain has made it worse, Lyons said.

He pointed to the fact that the stalks are so weak that they are starting to fall over in some cases.

While in other areas, the rain is helping with the cotton, soybean and peanut crops.

Lyons said at this point his farm cannot take anymore rainfall until the crops are taken out of the field, though.

The longer water pools around the crops, the more likely they are to die and abandon their fruit, he said.

“Every time it rains it just adds more to that total,” Lyons said. “Whether you got eight inches or 20 inches from Debby, it just adds to that total and it just makes it harder to get in the field and to get that crop out.”

Lyons said he projects that there will be certain long-term impacts from this difficult growing season, with commodity prices lower than he has ever seen them.

“The drought is going to affect our yield, which is going to obviously at the very end of it, going to affect how much money you make,” he said. “If you don’t have as much money this year going into next year, that’s going to be a cost that you have to look at. What am I going to be able to spend, what I might have to cut back on?”

Lyons told me he will not know the full extent of the yield loss this season for all of his crops until they finish harvesting in November.

He and his family were out here harvesting corn on Thursday.

SCDNR also said the state has seen below average fire threats in recent weeks.

The Drought Response Committee will closely monitor conditions and reconvene on Sept. 4.

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