In the fields

Farmers across the Tennessee Valley will burn diesel and midnight oil this week as they try to catch up on harvest before the rain returns.

"They're going to be running long and hard trying to get as much harvesting completed as they can before the next rain," said Randall Armstrong, Lauderdale County coordinator for the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. "The rain has put them way behind, and they're going to be working hard to get their crops out of the field before it starts raining again."

Armstrong said rain has kept fields too wet for much of this fall for farmers to operate their harvesting equipment.

Colbert County farmer Dallas Hollaway has missed so many days of field work this fall that he has lost count.

"It's rained so much I have a hard time remembering the last time it didn't rain," he said.

Hollaway went to his fields at 5 a.m. Tuesday to begin harvesting soybeans and expected to work into the night.

"I'm cutting beans that are still a little green, but I'm afraid if I leave them in the field and it starts raining again, the beans might start sprouting before we get another break in the rain," he said. "If we get as much rain as they are saying we will Thursday and Friday, it could be a while before we get back into the fields."

Forecasters are predicting more then 2 inches of rain for many communities Thursday and Friday as a cold front moves through the Tennessee Valley.

Reggie Shook, manager of Lauderdale County Farmers Co-op, said the break in the rain makes for a busy week at the cooperative's grain elevator in Florence, where farmers sell their corn and soybeans.

"It's been a while since the farmers were able to get in the fields, and now that the sun has finally come back out, everyone who can get into their fields is cutting corn and soybeans," he said.

Shook said many farmers are braving messy fields to harvest crops.

"The mud is still so bad in some fields that the farmers are getting their combines and cotton pickers stuck," he said. "When they try to pull the combine or picker out with a tractor or bulldozer, it also gets stuck and they wind up having to call a big wrecker to come winch them out."

Eric Schavey, a regional agent for the Extension System who is based in Belle Mina, said muddy fields are not the only problem. He said the rainy weather has caused corn, soybeans and cotton that were ready for harvest to begin sprouting.

"We needed some rain, but we didn't need 23 inches of it in the two months where farmers needed to be in their fields harvesting their crops," Schavey said. "It's really a shame because the farmers had some really good crops going into the fall, but they've had to watch them deteriorate in the field because of the rain."

Dennis Sherer can be reached at 740-5746 or dennis.sherer@TimesDaily.com.