When you get the chance to chat with some of your fellow farm broadcasters at one time or another, you always learn a little something that is happening in their neck of the woods. It always helps to put all the pieces together in our outlook for how the year is going around the whole country.
Mike Davis is with the Southern Farm Network in Raleigh, North Carolina, and a great friend to us at the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network. As we get ready to ramp up into harvest, they are already on the downward slope of theirs. However, just like with our droughts, they have weather extremes to worry about as well. Like hurricanes, for instance. Last week Hurricane Idalia wreaked havoc across the southeast and pushed its way into the coastal states, especially Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas.
After a derecho in Iowa over three years ago gave us a taste of what a hurricane is like for our Low Country friends, I was surprised to hear a discussion between my friend Mike and a Bayer agronomist who suggested that this storm actually was more of a help than a hindrance. I touched base with Mike, and he confirmed it. They said it was a help, and here’s why.
Zach Webb is a Technical Agronomist with Bayer. He went out to scout some of the areas of South Carolina and talked about the damage he surveyed.
He said that very close by, maybe only 30 miles away, it was a different story. There was hardly any wind damage.
Webb says that the damage was very isolated.
He said parts of North Carolina saw mostly rain from the hurricane and not as much wind damage.
Webb says that there was just isolated damage, and the rain that the hurricane dropped was beneficial to some very dry areas of the state.
