Although this week has brought a smidgen of rain, conditions are still quite dry in Person County, and farmers, along with everyone else, are feeling the effects.

He said the dry conditions this past summer and thus far in early fall had helped with harvesting of soybeans and corn yet hurt the yield on both crops.

The corn harvest, said Day, was about one-third to one-half that of last year.

Soybeans, he said, yielded only about half of what is considered a good crop. He said farmers were harvesting, on average, about 20 bushels of beans per acre this year, whereas 40 to 45 bushels per acre is considered normal.

“Pastures are shot,” Day said, and small grain, such as rye, wheat, barley and oats, are “slow emerging” as winter crops.

If the fall and winter do not bring “significant rains,” said Day, “it could hurt next year’s planting.”

He said the fall and winter are usually the time when rainfall recharges the land.

“The top soil is dry, and ponds are down” this year, Day explained, so farmers are worried “about ground moisture.”

Day added that this year’s tobacco crop, already down from past years due to changes in the market, “was hurt somewhat” by the lack of rainfall this year. He said the yield on tobacco was off this year by about 200 to 300 pounds per acre on average.

Person County is among 16 Piedmont North Carolina counties classified by the National Weather Service earlier this month as experiencing “severe drought” conditions.

Next week, the Cooperative Extension Service and the Roxboro Area Chamber of Commerce will observe the annual Farm-City Week. The ongoing theme for Farm City Week is “Partners in Progress,” which spotlights how American agriculture reaches far beyond the farm or ranch. The annual poster contest, open to county fourth-graders, will conclude at The Farm City Week Breakfast on Wednesday, Nov. 23 at the Golden Corral restaurant.

Arnold Hamm of the Flue Cured Tobacco Growers Cooperative will be the speaker for the breakfast, and will lead a tour of the Timberlake plant immediately after the meal.