Mother Nature, could you spare a drink?

Crops suffer, water levels plummet as hot, dry weather lingers

By Jennifer Eisenbart

Staff writer

Long before Ralph Rice was Chairman for the Town of Burlington, he was a farmer.

“I’ve never done anything else but,” he explained.

And in the 60-plus years he has been farming, he has never seen a summer as dry and as hot as this one.

“I would say about as bad as I’ve seen it,” said Rice Tuesday night. “We need some rain.”

While most people were trying to figure out how to stay comfortable in the sweltering heat again this week – temperatures topped out above 100 degrees and a heat advisory is in effect for the area until 10 p.m. Friday – farmers are among those truly suffering, along with their crops.

Rice said his first cut of hay “wasn’t bad,” but the second cut was about 20 percent of normal. In addition, his livestock is being fed its normal winter feed right now.

His wheat crops appear to be better than anticipated – “It came off better than I expected it would,” he conceded – but his corn and beans are suffering.

“You’re losing yield on the corn and beans every day,” Rice said. “It got off to an early start. It’s going to tassel pretty soon.

“That’s the time when it pollenates,” he added. “You’ve got to have cool weather and you’ve got to have moisture if you’re going to get anything.”

The dry weather is affecting things so much, he said, that corn corps, while well grown, may not yield corn ears.

“That’s highly possible,” Rice said. “Or it will be a very much reduced yield.”

Water levels plunge

Burlington has been especially dry, with the Fox and White Rivers dropping dramatically over the last two weeks. While Browns Lake needs water – longtime Aquaducks member Carmen Daniels said the group could use another eight inches or so for its performances – the group’s Fourth of July show on Lake Geneva was cancelled because the lake there was too low to safely ski.

Meanwhile, the falling river levels are troubling some long-time residents.

“The (White) river was down to a trickle,” said Kathie Craig. “It’s at the lowest level that I’ve ever seen.”

“It’s a very wildlife populated area. Normally very, very pretty, very scenic,” she added. “I don’t even know how to describe it (now). It’s really sad.”

Not everyone is unhappy about the low water, though. Thirteen-year-old Ricky Rios was fishing along the dam in Echo Park Tuesday, as he does every day, he said.

Among his prize catches in this weather? A 15-pound catfish.

“They come up more now,” he said of the fish.

The forecast for the rest of the week looked no better than it had for the last week and a half. Temperatures were forecasted to be between 90-100 degrees through Friday and still in the high 80s over the weekend.

Thunderstorms were in the forecast, but at best, a 50 percent chance.