Repeated drought forces Southern Alabama to abandon corn planting.

[NNadir]

Death of a crop: Drought ends corn as south Alabama farm staple
BOB JOHNSON
Associated Press
HEADLAND, Ala. - Kris Balkcom shakes his head as he stands in a dusty field surrounded by waist-high, brown and barren corn plants that by this time of year should be taller than him and filled with ears of tasty sweet corn.

Rainfall for the year is almost 20 inches below normal, similar to other parts of south Alabama and adjacent northwest Florida. As wide sections of the Southeast bake, National Weather Service forecasters say a combination of factors, including a high pressure system parked over the region and less moisture from the Gulf, are causing this siege of dry weather.

For Balkcom and others who farm the hot, sandy south Alabama soil, this year's devastating dry weather - the third major drought in the area in nine years - a victim is evident. The corn crop, long a staple in a region where rows and rows of majestic corn plants once lined country roads, is going the way of the family farm.

"No doubt corn has always been a high risk because of the amount of water it demands," Balkcom said. "We definitely will cut back on the amount of corn we grow next year."

Other farmers say they long ago stopped trying to grow corn in the region's shallow sandy soil, which doesn't hold moisture for as long as dirt in Midwest states, where corn remains a popular crop...

"...It's big-time bad. All our corn is completely gone," Everett said.

The demise of corn, soybeans and other row crops has caused some farmers to search for alternate crops that might produce a quicker profit. Across the state that search has seen farmers turn to raising such diverse products as shrimp, rabbits, Christmas trees and llamas. In southeast Alabama, some farmers are hoping that blueberries might be the answer.

Parker said some of his neighbors are planting blueberries on what used to be corn, cotton or peanut fields. Blueberries must be irrigated, but require fewer acres to produce a profitable crop...

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/local/15153765.htm

[orwell]

1. That's okay...

...Rush assured us that Global Warming would be good for farming with all that groovy CO2 for the plants to thrive on.

And Rush wouldn't lie...

[4dsc]

2. Hard lesson learned here

ALthough it saddens me to see his livehood threatened by drought, I'm glad to see some of the other farmers planting alternative crops ie blueberry's ect..