WSFA 12 News Montgomery, AL |Is freezing weather affecting crops?
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CHEROKEE, AL (WAFF) - Farmers in the Tennessee Valley have had a hard time dealing with all the rain.
Now that cold weather has moved in, will this cause more problems?
Finally farmers in the Shoals had something to be happy about on Monday, a sunny day.
But with temperatures dropping near freezing, will this cause more harvest headaches?
"It hasn't affected them that much," said Randall Armstrong, a Lauderdale County Extension Agent.
"I think it will stop cotton production where it is," he continued.
So the cold weather is not all bad.
With so much rain, many cotton plants started growing extra bolls, which causes the quality to decrease.
The cold weather has halted that.
"Our biggest problem right now is to get it dry enough to get in the field to do field work that needs to be done," said Armstrong.
Armstrong says freezing weather is good to get the ground solid, so farming equipment can get a solid footing.
"We need a good hard freeze to get that ground frozen," he said.
Even though the weather is dry, farmers still have to watch mold on their crops.
So for now, farmers are just hoping for one thing.
"Just dry weather," said Armstrong. "Dry weather would be the best thing."
So more days like Monday, are what farmers are hoping for.
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