According to the latest Palmer Drought Index, Barren County, which is located in the central Kentucky climate division, is in Severe Drought. Collectively, the central climate division needs 10.03 inches of rainfall to escape drought conditions. The central climate division is the only climate division in Kentucky that is not in Extreme Drought.

The link to that information is available at:
/cd_2_rain.txt

By rule of thumb, after a couple of months of below normal rainfall, we can easily go into a dry spell. But officially, in the United States, we use the Palmer Hydrologic Drought Index. Typically, we don't know we're in hydrologic drought until we're in the middle of it. Not so for agricultural drought. Two to 3 weeks of dry weather can have a significant impact for crops and gardens. What's important for agriculture is the timing of the rain. Even in hydrologic drought (that's the drinking water drought) a good rain can save our crops.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have further questions. Drought can be a little confusing at times.

Sound's like your doing many of the right things. I suggest that when you do water.... water deeply....put on an 1" of water at the time. That way it doesn't all evaporate in one day. Also....consider putting down a good mulch...which will reduce water lose.

And, of course....before you water....check the radar/forecast to see if any showers or isolated t-showers are coming your way.

Good luck!

Jason,

The Katrina rains were harmful to a lot of corn fields across the state, had no impact on a similar number of fields and, in my estimation, helped less than 5% of the corn crop in Kentuky. Most of the corn in Kentucky was at or very close to blacklayer when Katrina came through Kentucky. Once the corn reaches blacklayer, all grain weight has been obtained and the grain has actually severed vascular connections with the rest of the plant. The grain on corn at blacklayer would not be able to use any of the water from Katrina. Corn close to blacklayer (in the dent stages) would receive little to no benefit from Katrina.

The corn crop suffered from drought or near-drought conditions this year. Under this environment the plant will cannibalize nutrients from the stalk to produce grain. As a result of the cannibalization, the stalks were in poor conditions and could withstand very little stress (i.e. high winds, heavy rains, flooding) prior to Katrina.

In several fields, particularly in western Kentucky, the rains beat down a lot of corn. Farmers have had difficulty getting the downed corn harvested. In other fields, the rain encouraged fungal growth leading to ear diseases, which can lead to mycotoxins. We are recommending that any corn fed on-farm to cattle this year should be checked for mycotoxins before feeding.

Had Katrina been about 3 weeks sooner, a lot of corn would have benefitted from the rains. Much of the Midwest has corn that is developing behind ours. That is probably why current projections increased for the US corn crop. This further hurts Kentcuky farmers because prices are dropping from the increased US yield projections, but the rains actually hurt yields in Kentucky.

On the bright side, the rains were critical to helping out the soybean crop fill seed and increase yields.

Chad

Chad Lee, Ph.D.
Assistant Extension Professor, Grain Crops
423 Plant Science Bldg
1405 Veterans Drive
Lexington, KY 40546-0312

office: 859.257.3203
fax: 859.257.7874
email: cdlee2@uky.edu
website: www.uky.edu/Ag/GrainCrops/ ********************