Eric Freeland is expecting a significant impact on crop yields at his Brooke County farm due to recent drought conditions. (File Photo)

While severe drought conditions in Ohio County may improve with light rain predicted this week, local farmers still face a significant decline in crop yields as the fall approaches.

Gov. Jim Justice declared a state of emergency in all 55 counties last Friday due to the “prolonged shortage of rainfall.” According to National Weather Service Pittsburgh Lead Meteorologist Shannon Hefferan, the state faces “dangerous drought conditions,” which means farmers in the area are at risk.

“The ground is almost like cement because of the dry conditions,” Hefferan said. “Farmers are going to get some rain in the next couple of days, which is a good thing because if they get too much rain in a short amount of time, it just goes right to flooding.”

According to Hefferan, between ¾ to ½ inch of rainfall is predicted for Wheeling through the rest of this week. Wellsburg-based farmer Eric Freeland said the light showers would be “a little bit of a help” but would not fully mitigate the damage already done to his crops by severe drought conditions.

Freeland has turned to using public water for his crops, as the farm’s drip irrigation methods no longer provide enough water to protect the crops from the drought. Freeland described using “a tremendous amount of water just to keep critical crops going,” including substantial irrigation required for strawberry, tomato and blackberry crops.

With five or six water lines running continuously on the crops, Freeland predicts his water bill will “probably be over $1,000” this month compared to the usual bill of around $100.

Other crops that Freeland has no way to irrigate, including pumpkins, have also suffered significant damage.

“The corn is only half as tall as it should be, and the drought has kind of wiped out all the green beans,” Freeland said. “It looks like the pumpkin crop will not make it, and the potato crop yielded less than half that it should have. Overall, it’s going to be quite a bad year.”

While Justice declared a state of emergency less than a week ago, Freeland began noticing the effects of the drought six weeks ago. He noted that the combination of minimal rain and high heat has taken a toll not only on his crops but also on him and his employees, who work “15 to 16 days in a row in over 90-degree heat.”

“We spend a lot of time, probably two hours a day, tending to and moving the irrigation lines that normally we wouldn’t have to spend much time on,” Freeland said. “Since we’re dealing with the drought issue, we’re involved in an extra bit of work.”

Apart from crop yields at his farm decreasing due to the dry conditions, Freeland noted that another “underlying problem” of the drought was that food grown in the wild was also “dying up.” This means deer and other wild animals have been “overrunning” his farm to find food.

“The wildlife is overrunning the farm in masses in a way that I’ve never seen before,” Freeland said. “They’re foraging on the corn, green beans and other crops because they’re starving. There are deer everywhere because their natural foods have dried up, causing additional stress and strain on the crops as they get annihilated by wildlife.

Beyond his difficulties, Freeland added that other local farmers face the same low yields. As the Brooke County District Supervisor for the Northern Panhandle Conservation District, Freeland said he has spoken to cattle farmers who have had to “sell off some of their herds” since they do not have enough hay to “carry the cattle through the winter.”

“There will probably be some kind of temporary glut for beef now,” Freeland noted. “Then come January and February, there will be a shortage, and prices will probably be excessively high.”

Freeland has also charged customers “a little bit extra” due to low crop yields. He noted he is facing “a shortage of everything,” particularly strawberries, raspberries and corn.

Apart from the immediate impacts of the price increase, Freeland noted that the effects of the drought will continue into the fall. Due to the weather conditions, the staples of the farm’s Halloween activities, including a giant pumpkin patch and a high corn maze, will not come to fruition.

“No one really can irrigate pumpkins, and we probably have an acre of pumpkins with all the vines showing high distress and beginning to wilt,” Freeland said. “We’ll be lucky if the corn maze is three feet tall, and a corn maze isn’t all that cool when you can see over the top of it.”

Freeland admitted he is “no longer looking at the forecast” due to the disappointment he has faced from predicted rainfalls not occurring.

“There have been so many forecasts over the last month that looked like rain was heading right for us, and then it either dissipated or broke up and went around us,” Freeland said. “If we got a quarter inch or half an inch [of rain], that would be a little help. It would not make things back to normal, but it would ease up on our water requirements and give things a little rest.”

While the rain predicted will not significantly impact local farmers, the showers will help improve air quality in the area. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued a code orange alert for air quality in the Greater Pittsburgh area for Monday.

According to Hefferan, the code orange indicates ozone pollution in a densely populated area due to “massive car exhaust or industry emissions.” These emissions would mainly affect sensitive groups, including small children, the elderly and people who suffer from asthma, heart disease or lung disease. Hefferan noted anyone in these effects groups would be “more prone to stay inside and take it easy” during a code orange alert.

“Because we’ve been so dry, we haven’t had the precipitation needed to clean up all the emissions in the area,” Hefferan said. “Since we haven’t had any rain, that prompted the orange alert.”

With light rain in the coming forecast, Hefferan described increased precipitation and more moisture in the area as “dissipating the potential for higher ozone particles in the atmosphere.”

“Unfortunately, we had multiple days with no rain and high pressure, which keeps the air particles from any car exhausts or industry emissions in our area,” Hefferan said. “As chances for precipitation increase, the chances that the emissions and ozone pollution goes down.”