THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608090236
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 60 lines
Virginia Beach farmers have been hit by a double whammy this summer.
Too much rain, complicated by flooding from Back Bay, has caused tractors and trucks to mire down in muddy watermelon acreage, left potatoes rotting in the fields and just about destroyed the late crop of soy beans.
``There's not much cheer in the farm community,'' said Louis Cullipher, director of the Agriculture Department.
Beginning with Hurricane Bertha in July, water, also the life blood of a farm, has been beating the crops to death. Bertha not only brought rain but also pushed water up into Back Bay from the south and into surrounding fields. And the pummeling hasn't stopped yet.
``It seems like we got 4 to 5 inches one week and then 4 to 5 inches the next week and we've been saturated the whole time,'' said Blackwater farmer Don Horsley. ``It's approaching the wettest July I have seen.''
Because of the onslaught of rain, there has been no time to dry out between storms. Any plant, soybean or not, will die or be severely damaged after standing in water for 24 hours, Cullipher explained.
Soybeans have been hit hardest. Some of the beans which were planted in early July after the wheat harvest were drowned before they even came up. ``And it hasn't been dry enough to re-plant,'' Horsley said.
He already has lost about 30 to 35 acres of soybeans. That doesn't sound like much to lose for a man who grows about 1,800 acres of the beans, but too much water has stunted the growth of many of the other soybeans, too, he said.
If nothing else happens untoward with the weather, farmers will survive this wet season, but it already has taken its toll on the ``bottom line,'' Horsley said.
Not only are soybeans themselves doing poorly, but the wet weather is keeping farmers from doing maintenance that could help. Soybean farmers like Horsley as well as other farmers are being inundated with weeds which are growing like crazy in the wet weather. But farmers can't get in the fields to cultivate.
``The land is too wet and won't support the tractor,'' Cullipher said.
The same holds true for insect pests. Insects thrive in wet weather, but getting into the fields to spray has been impossible, too.
``The sad part is we've got farmers who bought brand new spray equipment this year and that costs up around $70,000,'' Cullipher said, ``and now they've got to go out and hire a crop duster.''
Other crops have had their own peculiar problems from the wet weather. For example, tomatoes which require staking have had to be restaked two or three times, he said. The wooden stakes have not been able to withstand high winds and saturated soil.
``So it's compounded, more labor and less yield,'' Cullipher said.
``The thing about farming which has been the kicker since biblical times,'' he added, ``is the weather.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos by LOUIS CULLIPHER
LEFT: Farm workers pick watermelons in Bonney Bright's flooded field
on Knotts Island. RIGHT: Tomatoes are under water on other Pungo
fields. by CNB