CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Va. (WSET) — Many areas in Virginia are under drought advisories according to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
Charlotte County farmers grapple with drought conditions, hopeful for more rainfall. (Credit: DEQ)
Farmers in Charlotte County are grappling with this lack of rain.
Charlotte County farmers grapple with drought conditions, hopeful for more rainfall. (Credit: Rachel Tillapaugh/WSET)
Even though snow has been melting and there has been a bit of rain recently, that hasn’t been enough to restore normal water levels deeper in the ground.
Brick Goldman said he first noticed a lack of rain last fall.
“If we don’t get rainfall in this area, we don’t get a great yield,” Goldman said.
Charlotte County farmers grapple with drought conditions, hopeful for more rainfall. (Credit: Rachel Tillapaugh/WSET)
Because of this, he has to resort to other ways of watering his crops, especially his vegetables.
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With his drip irrigation system, his crops can get much-needed relief.
Unfortunately, the cost is completely out of pocket.
“Every time you run the irrigation pump, it costs money labor to get out there and turn the pumps on. It costs us money. The other thing that we’re concerned about is if we start irrigating earlier, we might run out of water later in the year,” Goldman said.
He said that with dryer weather, he has to pay about 100 dollars a day when using this system.
“When we don’t get the moisture, we’ve got to irrigate to keep them moving along, you’ve got to put water out there. The one crop that I’ve really got some concern about not doing well is the wheat crop. If we don’t get out there and put some fertilizer on our wheat crop. Right now, we’re not going to have a decent wheat crop this year, those farmers who have wheat planted,” Goldman said.
With crops like wheat, without that fertilizer and good rain, they will not produce as much.
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Wheat farmers like Henry Carwile don’t use irrigation and rely on Mother Nature alone.
He said he is optimistic that rain will come again soon.
“Recently, we had pretty good rain, about three inches here in the last week or so. With getting some moisture back in it, warm weather last week, wheat started graining up a little bit. It looked a lot better now than it did,” Carewile said.
Goldman said with planting coming in April, he would hate to start off the spring with a lack of soil moisture.
If that happens, he will likely have to use irrigation again in the spring and summer.
All hope for another two to three inches of rain.