Fuel Prices and Drought Hit Farmers Hard

High input costs and current commodity prices were the topics of many conversations at a recent University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture field day.

The Aug.25 field day at the Northeast Research and Extension Center (NEREC) at Keiser in Mississippi County included a tour of research fields of cotton, rice, soybeans, corn and grain sorghum. Most Arkansas row-crop producers plan for a mid-summer drought and have an irrigation system to water at least some fields. The state has 1.5 million acres of rice, which is grown in flooded fields. Most of the state’s 910,000 acres of cotton and 320,000 acres of corn are irrigated. About two-thirds of the three million acres planted in soybeans are irrigated if water is available.

The price of diesel fuel to run irrigation pumps and other equipment has nearly doubled in two years. The pumps have run much longer than usual because of the severity of the drought. Variety performance tests for soybean, cotton, corn and grain sorghum are conducted in both irrigated and non-irrigated fields to determine which varieties are best for dryland production.

To read more, please go to http://www.arkansasagnews.com/Publications/Agnews/agnews05-48.html.