South Jersey Farmers Feel the Heat of Dry Weather

A dry spell may be putting it lightly when it comes to South Jersey‘s summer weather. The sizzling days are oppressive for all, but farmers watching their crops wither away especially feel the heat.

Farmers face a one-two punch this year. A mild winter with little snow means they already started out at a disadvantage. Most farmers rely on melting snow to keep the soil moist and rich for the upcoming season. The lack of snowfall can create poor soil conditions exacerbated by the dry summer.

Daniel Loch, of in Moorestown, said the dry spells have taken a toll on his family's business—though not as bad as you might think. The farm is presently run by three generations of Lochs and goes back many years.

"It's just really delaying everything," he said. "I don't have a lot of the crops I'd already have planted."

Loch said they have tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and flowers in the ground now, and they're growing fine. Normally this time of year they'd also have cucumbers, cantaloupe and a handful of other crops, but because of the dry weather Loch held off.

"It was too dry," he said. "We would have had to water too much."

Fortunately, Loch said the farm's irrigation system has "evened things out" in the absence of natural precipitation, and he's really not hoping for that much more rain.

"It's better to have not a lot of rain than to have too much rain," he explained. "If it rains every day and you have clouds all the time, it's going to be worse than if you have no rain."

Even with the recent thunderstorm that struck South Jersey just days ago, Bill and Mary Ellen DeHart, of DeHarts Farm in West Deptford, said their land is suffering from the lack of moisture as well. They already lost two fields worth of corn—the crop they’re famous for—from poor soil conditions.

Fortunately, Bill DeHart said, the farm still has cornfields that will be harvested shortly. 

Mary Ellen DeHart pointed to her tomatoes, which are sunburnt and cracked on top. Inside, they're cooked from the heat. 

Still, Bill DeHart, like Loch, believes a hot dry summer is better than a stormy one. He had to close his produce stand a month early last year because of Hurricane Irene. Another summer, hailstones pierced a large potion of his crops, leaving them unsellable.

“My daddy use to say, ‘Dry weather will scare you, but wet weather will kill you,’” Bill DeHart said.

Loch said Irene killed his entire tomato crop at the end of August 2011.

Much of Burlington County, as well as Gloucester and Camden counties, are categorized under the USDA Drought Monitor as “abnormally dry,” but could soon be upgraded to “moderate drought” if conditions do not improve. According to the current USDA Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin, most of South Jersey is under a roughly 2-inch of rainfall deficit from average. 

“This summer is tending to be a little drier,” said Mitchell Gaines, a meteorologist at the Mount Holly branch of the National Weather Service. 

A single heavy rainfall won’t turn the tide.

“It would have be an above-normal rainfall on a consistent basis,” Gaines explained, on what it would take to get all three counties back into the black with rainfall. 

Protecting peaches, pumpkins and prices

Anthony Yula, of Gloucester County’s Summit City Farms, said his peach crop is faring well in the drought, but at the expense of the irrigation system running day and night. Peach trees need a good amount of water, especially several weeks before harvest. If a peach tree is drought-stressed, they can produce smaller fruit or not ripen on time, rendering the fruit unmarketable.  

“The rain has been spotty, but fortunately we’re spread out,” said Yula, adding that when rain comes, it sometimes does not hit all farms.  

Thanks to Summit City’s drip irrigation system, they are combating the weather one peach tree at a time, but that’s not always good enough.

“Irrigation is not the same as natural rain,” says Yula. 

Although many fall crops, such as broccoli, are stunted from drought stress, the DeHarts’ pumpkins are still looking good. Since they were planted later, they have not felt the effects of the dry weather like the other produce. Bill DeHart believes the unintentional late planting may lead to a good pumpkin crop this fall.

And while some may think the dry weather will lead to higher produce prices in South Jersey, Yula explained the price of crops does not change from year to year depending on what kind of money a farm sinks into them. The market drives the prices, and its reach expands outside of the Garden State. For example, if New Jersey produces minimal peaches one summer, but California produces record amounts, the retail price of the fruit will not rise.

“For you to make money, someone else has to hurt,” said Bill DeHart.