Crops suffering under heat, drought

A soybean field off Ky. 70 received a much-needed drink of water Tuesday evening amid month-long drought conditions with hardly any measurable rainfall. The beans belong to local growers P & H Farms and are irrigated from the waters of Maple Lake, or commonly Maple Sink, in southern Crittenden County. While the irrigated beans appear healthy, much of their crop on the opposite side of the highway is brown and withered by the unseasonably warm and dry conditions that have gripped Kentucky since late August.

"Beans are hurting," Natalie Parish said of the crop.

The problem is not isolated to Crittenden County, but is not yet overwhelming crops statewide. According to Monday's USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service office in Louisville, only 17 percent of Kentucky's soybean crop is poor to very poor. In fact, more than half of the state's beans, 57 percent, are considered fair to excellent.

According to the Kentucky Mesonet weather monitoring station in Crittenden County, prior to this morning's trace amounts, only 0.04 inches of rain had been recorded locally since Aug. 27, and September's average daily high of 88.4 degrees is almost 10 degrees warmer than normal.