Rain may put a damper on a good day, but it makes the farmer happy.
Their wish was granted this week but is it too much?
"I think maybe the last day of rain may maybe too much of a good thing," said Stephen Barts, a Virginia Extension Agent.
If corn fields could talk they'd take a sigh of relief.
After months of dry, dusty, and hot weather farmers now have an aggressive start to the 2013 growing season.
"The second day you actually had some water standing in the fields and that's going to negatively impact those crops that were in the field," Barts said.
The rain came hard this week and those flooded fields could stick around for days.
"The last day of rain or so things were getting pretty well saturated and you were starting to get a little bit of runoff," Barts said.
Farmers now have to start over, or wait for this to dry before plowing.
Putting their work behind schedule.
There is, however, a bright side. The days of rain replenished nutrients deep down in the soil's surface. And as the snow slowly melts, it will raise the water table, making things much better this Spring.
"That does a lot to recharge the surface waters whether it's an irrigation pond, or creeks or rivers that were significantly low in water levels," Barts said.
Before this week, Pittsylvania County was in a drought, with a 14 inch rainfall deficit.
Just one week of rain doesn't guarantee a heavy crop this year. Barts says it has to rain or snow periodically throughout the season to feed the soil.
