‘Double-Whammy’ Summer Drought on the Heels of a Wet Spring Creates Challenges for West Tennessee Row-Crop Growers
Dec 02, 2024
Any seasoned farmer will tell you that the occasional down year is to be expected, even anticipated, although it’s no fun while it’s happening.
Unfortunately, the 2024 growing season for row-croppers in many parts of Tennessee was a case-study of this fact.
The challenges began early in the year with a cool, wet spring that delayed planting for some. Most growers were able to get their crops in the ground by late April but, depending on their location, were then greeted by nearly five weeks of near-constant rain, swamping fields and necessitating replanting in many cases. Thanks to waterlogged, deoxygenated soil, poor root development in crops would’ve been problem enough under normal conditions, but come June, the water faucet was cut off for some three months until Hurricane Francine finally delivered significant rains around September 12. By mid-October, parts of Tennessee faced significant topsoil and subsoil moisture shortages, with 40% of topsoil rated as short or very short on moisture and almost 40% of subsoil similarly impacted, according to a National Centers for Environmental Information drought report. It was then too late for most crops to rebound enough to provide favorable yields. USDA data for early October indicated that over 30% of Tennessee's corn was rated fair, while only 14% was considered excellent. Soybeans and cotton also faced challenges, with high percentages graded as only fair or poor, directly affecting yields. (Harvest is continuing during the writing of this story.)
To get a more detailed look at the West Tennessee growing season, The Cooperator spoke with three row-crop producers — Buddy Sorrells of Gibson Farmers Cooperative, Mark Roach of First Farmers Cooperative, and Drew Bailey of Mid-South Farmers Cooperative.
Buddy Sorrells, Trenton
A longtime member of Gibson Farmers Cooperative along with his father, Frank, Buddy Sorrells produced 2,000 acres of corn, 3,800 of beans, and 1,600 of wheat in 2024, along with keeping 100 mama cows.
“We started no-till planting our corn around the 5th of April, then it rained us out,” Sorrells reports. “We got finished planting everything else by the 1st of May before the rains came again. We lost some river bottom [plantings] and it took us till the end of June to get all of that replanted. We also had to replant about 150 of acres of what would have normally been corn into beans.”
Sorrells says that due to his farm’s particular locations in Gibson County, his June and July were “pretty good.”
“Then, after about the 10th of August, it turned dry and didn’t rain again until [Hurricane Francine] arrived,” he says. “With Hurricane Helene, we suffered some significant damage in our beans — probably 20-30% on one farm and 7-10% on another. All in all, I’d say our year has turned out average; we were lucky compared to a lot of other growers who didn’t get the rain we did.”
Mark Roach, Savannah
Longtime member and director of First Farmers Cooperative, sawmill owner and row-crop producer Mark Roach grew 1,600 acres of soybeans and 550 acres of corn in 2024.
“We got into the field around the last two weeks of April, got our corn planted along with around 300 acres of early beans, and then it started raining,” Roach says. “Seems like for 4-5 weeks after that, we didn’t turn a wheel — it was just too wet. We finally got back into the field around the 1st of June and started planting the rest of our beans and then boom; it went dry. We didn’t get another significant rain for the next three months. June and July were brutally hot, and even under irrigation, our corn didn’t pollinate correctly under that heat.”
A mechanical problem with his irrigation system exacerbated the problem, Roach says, further throwing off the timing of the growing season.
“In retrospect, we should’ve quit planting before the second week of June and focused on getting water on the corn and what beans we already had in the ground,” he admits. “But honestly, there are some years where Mother Nature just refuses to cooperate and there’s not a lot you can do about it. Even our irrigated land didn’t do well.”
Roach estimates that his irrigated bean yields are down between 30-50% as compared to a typical year.
“Our dry-land beans outside the pivots are down more like 70% based on our yield monitors,” he says. “All of our corn was irrigated, and it’s down roughly 35%. I think that a lot of that is due to the excessive heat interfering with pollination. A lot of the ears will have big, fat kernels on one side and hardly anything on the other. It was just one of those years.”
Drew Bailey, Gadsden
For Drew Bailey, a 5th-generation row-crop farmer who works with his father, Steve, the season began much like it did for both Sorrells and Roach — wet. The Baileys farm some 7,500 acres in Crockett and Madison counties, three-fourths of which is rotated wheat with the balance in cotton, corn, and soybeans.
“It was a challenging start,” says Bailey, currently in his third year as a director at Mid-South Farmers Cooperative. “We got our corn in the ground in April, along with some early beans, but about five days into May, it was rain on top of rain. We had to replant a third of our cotton due to the wet conditions.”
Bailey says he was lucky to catch a few rains in June, but when July rolled around, “that was the end of the rain.” Despite the setback, the Bailey’s recorded a good corn crop thanks to the pop-up showers in June.
“It turned out to be a mixed bag season,” he says. “Our corn was good, but beans and cotton were really impacted. On top of that, the two hurricanes that came through did some serious damage to our soybeans and cotton. It was kind of a ‘double-whammy.’”
His soybeans were almost ready for harvest when the hurricanes hit, Bailey says, which resulted in a poor showing at the granary.
“We were getting pretty heavy dockage because the quality of the beans were down,” he explains. “So, on top of the drought — and probably being off around 30% on soybean yields — we were also getting docked. We had good yields under our irrigation, but that’s only about 20% of our acreage.”
Bailey says that despite the challenges, he looks at the year as a learning opportunity.
“If you’re not adapting, then you’re going backwards,” he says. “You can always take something positive away from a down season. Like my dad always says, ‘Everything goes in cycles. This year was down, but next year might make up for it!”
Unfortunately, the 2024 growing season for row-croppers in many parts of Tennessee was a case-study of this fact.
The challenges began early in the year with a cool, wet spring that delayed planting for some. Most growers were able to get their crops in the ground by late April but, depending on their location, were then greeted by nearly five weeks of near-constant rain, swamping fields and necessitating replanting in many cases. Thanks to waterlogged, deoxygenated soil, poor root development in crops would’ve been problem enough under normal conditions, but come June, the water faucet was cut off for some three months until Hurricane Francine finally delivered significant rains around September 12. By mid-October, parts of Tennessee faced significant topsoil and subsoil moisture shortages, with 40% of topsoil rated as short or very short on moisture and almost 40% of subsoil similarly impacted, according to a National Centers for Environmental Information drought report. It was then too late for most crops to rebound enough to provide favorable yields. USDA data for early October indicated that over 30% of Tennessee's corn was rated fair, while only 14% was considered excellent. Soybeans and cotton also faced challenges, with high percentages graded as only fair or poor, directly affecting yields. (Harvest is continuing during the writing of this story.)
To get a more detailed look at the West Tennessee growing season, The Cooperator spoke with three row-crop producers — Buddy Sorrells of Gibson Farmers Cooperative, Mark Roach of First Farmers Cooperative, and Drew Bailey of Mid-South Farmers Cooperative.
Buddy Sorrells, Trenton
A longtime member of Gibson Farmers Cooperative along with his father, Frank, Buddy Sorrells produced 2,000 acres of corn, 3,800 of beans, and 1,600 of wheat in 2024, along with keeping 100 mama cows.
“We started no-till planting our corn around the 5th of April, then it rained us out,” Sorrells reports. “We got finished planting everything else by the 1st of May before the rains came again. We lost some river bottom [plantings] and it took us till the end of June to get all of that replanted. We also had to replant about 150 of acres of what would have normally been corn into beans.”
Sorrells says that due to his farm’s particular locations in Gibson County, his June and July were “pretty good.”
“Then, after about the 10th of August, it turned dry and didn’t rain again until [Hurricane Francine] arrived,” he says. “With Hurricane Helene, we suffered some significant damage in our beans — probably 20-30% on one farm and 7-10% on another. All in all, I’d say our year has turned out average; we were lucky compared to a lot of other growers who didn’t get the rain we did.”
Mark Roach, Savannah
Longtime member and director of First Farmers Cooperative, sawmill owner and row-crop producer Mark Roach grew 1,600 acres of soybeans and 550 acres of corn in 2024.
“We got into the field around the last two weeks of April, got our corn planted along with around 300 acres of early beans, and then it started raining,” Roach says. “Seems like for 4-5 weeks after that, we didn’t turn a wheel — it was just too wet. We finally got back into the field around the 1st of June and started planting the rest of our beans and then boom; it went dry. We didn’t get another significant rain for the next three months. June and July were brutally hot, and even under irrigation, our corn didn’t pollinate correctly under that heat.”
A mechanical problem with his irrigation system exacerbated the problem, Roach says, further throwing off the timing of the growing season.
“In retrospect, we should’ve quit planting before the second week of June and focused on getting water on the corn and what beans we already had in the ground,” he admits. “But honestly, there are some years where Mother Nature just refuses to cooperate and there’s not a lot you can do about it. Even our irrigated land didn’t do well.”
Roach estimates that his irrigated bean yields are down between 30-50% as compared to a typical year.
“Our dry-land beans outside the pivots are down more like 70% based on our yield monitors,” he says. “All of our corn was irrigated, and it’s down roughly 35%. I think that a lot of that is due to the excessive heat interfering with pollination. A lot of the ears will have big, fat kernels on one side and hardly anything on the other. It was just one of those years.”
Drew Bailey, Gadsden
For Drew Bailey, a 5th-generation row-crop farmer who works with his father, Steve, the season began much like it did for both Sorrells and Roach — wet. The Baileys farm some 7,500 acres in Crockett and Madison counties, three-fourths of which is rotated wheat with the balance in cotton, corn, and soybeans.
“It was a challenging start,” says Bailey, currently in his third year as a director at Mid-South Farmers Cooperative. “We got our corn in the ground in April, along with some early beans, but about five days into May, it was rain on top of rain. We had to replant a third of our cotton due to the wet conditions.”
Bailey says he was lucky to catch a few rains in June, but when July rolled around, “that was the end of the rain.” Despite the setback, the Bailey’s recorded a good corn crop thanks to the pop-up showers in June.
“It turned out to be a mixed bag season,” he says. “Our corn was good, but beans and cotton were really impacted. On top of that, the two hurricanes that came through did some serious damage to our soybeans and cotton. It was kind of a ‘double-whammy.’”
His soybeans were almost ready for harvest when the hurricanes hit, Bailey says, which resulted in a poor showing at the granary.
“We were getting pretty heavy dockage because the quality of the beans were down,” he explains. “So, on top of the drought — and probably being off around 30% on soybean yields — we were also getting docked. We had good yields under our irrigation, but that’s only about 20% of our acreage.”
Bailey says that despite the challenges, he looks at the year as a learning opportunity.
“If you’re not adapting, then you’re going backwards,” he says. “You can always take something positive away from a down season. Like my dad always says, ‘Everything goes in cycles. This year was down, but next year might make up for it!”