Franklin County crops hit hard by recent storms

      Heavy rainfall throughout the second half of June has created uncertainty among local agriculture experts about the potential success rates for the region’s corn and soybean crop.

     Despite a good start during the early growing season, crop development in Franklin County was hampered by torrential rainfall and other severe weather during the past three weeks. Fields flooded, straight-line winds bent cornstalks and some hail caused damage throughout the area. Well over a foot of rainfall was dumped on Franklin County during the onslaught, some of which still remained pooled in local fields last weekend.

     “You hear a lot of stuff about damage totals,” said Steve Abbas, county executive director of the Farm Service Agency. “But as far as how much, I’m not sure. I don’t think anyone knows because it’s been too wet to actually get out there and look.”

     Read the full article in the July 9 edition of the Hampton Chronicle.