Persistent rainfalls have farmers groaning

June's incessant rains are spoiling crops, ruining hay and making farmers very unhappy.

At the Dutchess County Airport, 7.55 inches have been recorded so far this month. That's a 5-inch departure from normal, said Robert Kilpatrick, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albany.

The wet weather has ruined some crops, made harvesting often impossible and left some local farmers waiting for fields to be dry enough to plant.

Despite the wet weather, the total hasn't broken the record for June - 12.44 inches in 1903, according to the Mohonk Preserve Daniel Smiley Research Center.

Only three days out of the past 21 days were precipitation-free, Kilpatrick said. On 14 of those days, a measurable amount of rain fell. On an additional four, there were trace amounts.

"So it's basically rained continuously," he said.

Kilpatrick blames the wet weather on a series of low-pressure systems.

"It's almost more of a winter pattern than a summer pattern," he said.
'It's terrible'

The abundance of rain, coupled with seasonally low temperatures and cloudy skies, has not been good for most crops.

"It's terrible," said Paul Wigsten of Wigsten Farm in Pleasant Valley.

"About half my tomato crop isn't in the ground yet and I just planted my heirloom melons on Saturday," he said. "Stuff should be growing happily in the ground by now."

Wigsten farms about 40 acres with pumpkins, potatoes and heirloom tomatoes and melons.

"What we all need right now is a lot of sun and temperatures in the 80s," he said.

A worst-case scenario would be an early frost, he said.

"Once you get a frost in the tomato business, you're out of business," Wigsten said.

For Ray Vail, of Ken-Ray Farm in Union Vale, it hasn't been dry long enough to cut and bail the hay he sells for horse feed.

"It's deteriorating," he said. "If you cut the hay two weeks ago, it would be 20 percent protein. The longer you wait, the lower the protein.

"The fields are so wet, I don't even know if we can get at them for a while," he said.

Bart Colucci of Meadow View Farm in Gardiner also has been struggling.

"My strawberry crop ... we lost a lot of that, he said. "You can't pick when everything's wet. It deteriorates the strawberries so badly that they just rot. ... Everything goes to mush.

"I can't get a lot of my plants planted and nothing's growing," he said. "There's too much water, no sun and it's cold. A combination of the three and nothing will germinate and grow."

The financial impact of June's wet weather remains to be seen.

"A lot of it's permanent," Colucci said. "It's getting a little late to replant some things."

Colucci said he's starting some seeds inside his green house, hoping to put them outside later, but other than that there's not much he can do.

"I don't think we'll recover," he said. "I don't know what it will do to the food chain."
From: http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/