'Abnormally dry': Heat, lack of rain already impacting Kentucky crops

At Eckert’s Farm in Woodford County, the peaches are ripe and ready for picking.

“The heat is good for the fruit because it brings that sugar content to them,” Megan Fields expressed as a small group of kids played behind her on a warm Friday morning.

“People come out earlier to do pick-your-own, then in the afternoons we kind of drop off,” she said of what business has been like during the last month since temperatures began consistently rising into the 90s.

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We also haven’t had much rain in central Kentucky and that too is having an impact. Here, they’re a little more equipped to withstand a drought.

“We are fortunate here to have irrigation on most of the crops,” Fields said before noting they do pray for rain when it comes to the peaches since the irrigation system can’t reach those. They also can’t get to the pumpkin seeds they just planted for the October harvest.

And while they have that luxury amenity, it doesn’t come cheaply when we go this long without significant rain totals.

“It’ll be more costly to us when we don’t have rain and have to use irrigation because we’re currently on city water,” she said.

Eventually, something will have to give though. Fields said Eckert’s gets its vegetables from other local growers who might not have irrigation on their farms. And not everything grown here, as mentioned, can be reached by the water they do have.

“I’m not too concerned with the pumpkin crop yet, maybe in two months call me and we’ll see.”

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Fields was joking, but there’s some truth behind every joke, and the truth is the Commonwealth is dry for this time of year (30% abnormally dry), according to our Storm Tracker meteorologists, and the problem could grow if we don’t get a change soon.

“They’ll go out a pick a short amount of time, instead of staying two or three hours with us,” Fields said of the customers who come to enjoy the grounds and locally grown products here.