Crazy weather affects crops

HUNTINGTON, Ind. (WANE) - The extreme weather we have seen this spring and summer has not only affected our daily lives, it has also greatly affected this years crops. 

Many farmers are dealing with small crops or crops that won't mature fully.  And it's all due to one weather factor, the rain.

The outlook for this season is a low yield.  This is due to 2 main things. 

First, we had a record setting May in rainfall which forced crops to be planted late, some even as late as the first weeks of June.  This has put many area farmers and growers well behind schedule. 

Second, once the crops were in the ground, the rain stopped.  This has prevented some of the crops from maturing.  Some plants have stopped producing vegetables completely.

One grower we spoke with says that one of the hardest hit vegetables he has seen in his field has been green beans. 

Now that the rain has stopped, the plants can not produce the pods.  He does say however, that tomatoes aren't doing too bad.

For larger scale farmers, especially those with corn or soybean fields, it's not good news.  Both plants require lots of rain during the pollination stage which for some is now.  Because they aren't getting that rain, they are much smaller. 

Everyone we talked to agreed that a good rain would help.  Especially for those farmers that were forced to plant much later. 

Those crops will be pollinating later in the season and could be helped if we get some rain.