30 August 2023
MARION COUNTY, Kan. (KSNW) – Many farmers expected the corn harvest would suffer because of this extended drought in some areas of the Sunflower State.
“It’s been a really bad year. From July on,” said Matt Kirkpatrick.
Matt farms with his father, Duane Kirkpatrick. But he is also a soil analyst.
“It’s been really depressing the last couple of weeks as we drive around and the fields just keep getting worse and worse,” said Matt. “A lot of the soybeans won’t get harvested at all. We were going to make hay out of some of ours and they were drying up so fast we didn’t get the opportunity to even do that.”
Matt says they rely heavily on sub surface moisture to keep crops going when the rain turns off. But this year, that sub-surface moisture just didn’t exist because of the drought.
“In this game, you’ve always got to have hope,” said Duane. “So we trust the guy upstairs to do what’s right for us.”
Duane says sometimes you just have to have faith the rains will come again.
But this is the second year for so many farmers in Kansas experiencing a drought.
“There’s always next year. But it just seems like we’re running out of next years,” said Matt.
Matt said they last got a decent rain around July 4.
“And then after that, it just shut off. Typically we get a late July rain to finish off the corn, and we did not get that this year,” said Matt.
Matt also says there is concern about the soil because of the extended drought.
“But the biggest issue to the soil is the loss of microbes or bacteria,” said Matt. “But the micro-organisms that live in the soil have to have water just like any living thing.”
Matt and Duane say they do a lot of no-till farming now to keep more moisture in the soil.
But they are also looking at long-term predictions of when it will rain again.
“This is a hard business sometimes,” said Matt. “But we love the land, and we love farming. It’s a great lifestyle.”