MOUNT STERLING, Ohio (WCMH) — Last week, 22 southeastern Ohio counties were declared natural disaster areas due to the prolonged drought categorized as extreme to exceptional, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows D4-exceptional drought affecting areas southeast of Columbus, and D3-extreme drought spreading north into the southern two-thirds of Franklin County that extends eastward to the Ohio River into West Virginia.
Farmers and commercial growers in the driest areas in southern Ohio are working long hours to salvage withered crops that are expected to produce well-below-average yields in the fall.
George Lohstroh farms 125 acres along the Madison-Pickaway County border near Mount Sterling. The pumpkin patch at Lohstroh Family Farms along Route 56 near Mount Sterling spans 14 acres. Lohstroh said the current conditions reflect the worst drought he has experienced in his 40 years of farming.
“You can see we have a pretty good crop now, but it’s just taken a tremendous amount of extra effort–a lot of diesel fuel, gasoline and time.”
Soil moisture is severely lacking and represents the most severe drought in southeastern Ohio since 1988, putting stress on plants that support pumpkins; too little moisture and the fruit fails to mature.
Lohstroh explained the importance of watering the leaves that absorb nourishing sunlight, and also protect the pumpkins from sunburn damage. Leaves that have received insufficient moisture are essentially fried and have “dropped or drooped down, and the sun did wind up burning them,” he pointed out.
Water from a well that taps into nearby Darby Creek has provided irrigation all summer, especially as the drought worsened. The cornfields beyond the pumpkin patch turned brown like November, and the corn will be harvested several weeks earlier than usual. Soybean fields that have been watered are still green, but some plants will likely produce only tiny beans.
A smaller number of corn kernels and stunted ear size reveal the damage done by drought. “Yields probably drop by 25 percent, maybe more than that,” which affects a farmer’s income, Lohstroh said.
“Each year brings challenges,” said Cristin Lohstroh, George’s daughter, who helps manage the family farm. “This year just happens to be no rainfall. So we’re able to mitigate some of that through hard work and effort into irrigating our crops,” she said.
“We here are blessed to be able to put the water on the crop and have a good crop of pumpkins. It’s just been a lot of late nights and no suppers … when you have to keep the irrigation rolling.”
Hard work and long days that stretch into the night to keep the crops watered has paid off with a respectable patch of pumpkins, including 40 varieties in all shapes and sizes, on display at the family farm in eastern Madison County.