MONITEAU COUNTY − For Liz Graznak, owner of Happy Hallow Farm, growing vegetables during this dry season has been ideal for her operations. However, drought implications that have negatively impacted many livestock and large crop farmers have affected her farm, as well.
“Obviously, we need water, and my water well ran dry about two months ago and I had to dig a new well, which is crazy expensive and not something that I was prepared for and had the money for,” Graznak said.
While most of Graznak’s vegetables like peppers and eggplants have thrived in controlled and dry conditions, crops like her tomatoes have suffered.
Graznak said she is lucky that she isn’t running an operation like some of her neighbors who have to try and irrigate hundreds of acres of crops.
“My whole community around Jamestown is mostly farmers, and they are suffering much more than I am,” Graznak said.
Graznak believes just from seeing and talking to community members who grow corn, they might have a weaker season than normal.
“Around me centrally, there’s not going to much of a corn crop, because at the time the corn was tasseling and silking, it was too dry,” Graznak said.
Although heavy rainfall has helped relieve short-term impacts on the drought like helping soybeans through the season, Missouri Department of Agriculture’s Deputy Director Chris Klenklen said things are still far from normal.
“The rains that we have received have been very beneficial, but they are going to need to continue if we are going to get out of this drought,” Klenklen said. “They also need to be a little more widespread. Not everyone has received adequate rain.”
According to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the rain has relieved drought conditions in Missouri, but 72% of the state is still experiencing a drought, with 5% of the state experiencing an extreme drought.
Klenklen said it is imperative that we get rain going into the early parts of the fall.
“There’s a lot of folks that still have hope to cut some hay and we’ll have to see where things stand, but we’ll need more rain and it needs to be timely as we go into the fall,” Klenklen said.
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