Drought impacting crops

(ABC 6 News) – A lack of rain can be catastrophic for some farmers. But, the owners at the Miracle Strawberry Farm say their irrigation system has saved them.

“Yesterday after five weeks the Lord sent us rain,” said Miracle Strawberry Farm owner, Barry Mosier.

Barry and his wife Mary Beth, have been growing strawberries for 10 years. But this year has presented some challenges.

“No water,” said Barry.

In fact, up until Sunday night, Barry says they haven’t had measurable rain since mid-May. This year Barry has had to rely on their irrigation system more than ever.

“We have drip irrigation on our farm, I don’t have overhead. So, there’s just a little pond on our place we burry the irrigation lines so all the strawberry plants can irrigate from underneath, so it doesn’t waste water that way,” said Barry.

A farm with an irrigation system is considered lucky.

“I wish I had one right now,” said farmer Jeff Pagel.

Jeff has a farm south of Eyota where he grows corn and soybeans and raises dairy cows. He says a fear of a low crop yield is hanging over many farmer’s heads right now.

“This is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said Jeff.

Jeff says it’s not just the crops that are hurting. Droughts impacts other areas of the farm, including feed for his cows. For now, all he can do is hope for the best.

“But you know dad’s still kind of optimistic, but if we don’t get some rain soon the stories, he’s telling sound awfully similar,” said Jeff.

Back at the strawberry farm things are looking good. There’s about a week left in the picking season. Barry said on Friday, June 16 they had over 500 people stop by the farm.

But, for corn and soybeans, they have the rest of the summer to go and that’s when we’ll really know how much this drought has impacted crops.