I always look forward to get my copy of the Alabama Weekly Crop and Weather Report from the Department of Agriculture/Alabama Field Office in Montgomery. This information for the week ending June 24. Some notes:
* 88 percent of the Alabama corn crop is in very poor or poor condition
* 9 percent is all that is in fair condition
* 3 percent is in good condition
* 85 percent of the state’s pasture and range land is in very poor or poor condition
* 13 percent in fair condition. Chip East, Extension Agent for East Alabama, reports that cattle farmers are either selling their herds or feeding them $100 per bale hay. Most of the state’s livestock is rated in very poor to poor condition.
* 75% of the state has very short top soil moisture. An additional 20% is short
* 43 percent of the state has a drought that is rated as “exceptional” the worst rating
* 9.64 inches is all the rain that has fallen at Gadsden Airport so far in 2007
* 20.42 inches is the Gadsden deficiency so far this year
OTHER RAIN DEFICITS
* 19.27 inches at Tuscaloosa Airport
* 20.00 inches at Thorsby
* 19.03 at Talladega
* 18.72 at Alabaster
* 18,30 at Cullman Ag station
* 4.09 at Geneva
The Extreme South part of Alabama is better off. Geneva has received 23.86 inches of rain so far this year.
Finally, from the NWS/Huntsville, this sobering fact:
* Rain at Huntsville Airport since January 1, 2005 is short by 51.34 inches! That is an entire year’s supply!
