New Jersey farmers hope for rain as dry stretch starts to affect crops

MONROEVILLE, N.J. (CBS) — At William Schober Sons Orchards in Monroeville, New Jersey, workers were going row by row Wednesday putting five to 10 gallons of water on each apple tree with dryer than normal conditions in South Jersey.
“Since it’s been so dry, it’s very rare do we water at all in September, but with no rain, this is the next option we have,” John Hurff, who works at the orchards, said.
Hurff says without the rain, the apples are struggling to grow to their full size, which could affect sales at the farmers market. He said the dry weather doesn’t appear to be impacting corn, but soybeans could be a different story.
“So we haven’t had [any] rain on the soybeans, so again they’re not going to yield as much without having enough water on them,” Hurff said.
At Green Acres Farm in Salem, horses were chomping down on grass, but the once-green pastures are growing browner and drier without rain.
“We need the rain right now to make the grass grow,” Sid Browning said.
Browning boards horses on his 10-acre farm. He’s hoping for some wet weather to help the grass grow at least six inches before the first frost of the season. If not, this dry stretch could end up costing him more money through the winter months.
“If there’s no grass growing, we have to pull hay out of the barn, which we paid money for. Hay is expensive, and we have to start feeding that to them,” Browning said.
Now many farmers are praying for rain during a time when we usually see some of the most rainfall throughout the year.
“The hope is hopefully everything turns out OK,” Hurff said. “And you still get a nice crop and a nice yield and hopefully it doesn’t get worse.”