GENTRY, Ark. — The weather has been difficult for everyone this summer, especially farmers.
“When it’s 105 and high humidity, it’s rough out there,” said Bill Taylor of Taylor’s Orchard.
With little rain this summer, it’s making it more difficult for farmers like Taylor to make sure their crops are adequately watered.
“If I hadn’t been hauling water to my blackberries, I wouldn’t have blackberries up here today…I’m hauling about 2,500 gallons every day to the blackberries,” Taylor said.
Taylor says he has already drained two of his ponds and now has to buy water from the City of Gentry.
Fayetteville Farmer's Market Manager Teresa Maurer says since the land is so dry, some vendors have even had issues with pests ruining their crops.
“What happens too is when the environment dries out, then you have more pest problems, both the four-legged kind like deer, and other kinds of pests as well,” Maurer said.
The harsh weather conditions have also impacted pricing and availability.
“If somebody’s got a reduction in how much they can harvest, you know and their prices go up because of water, because of labor, everything else there is a little bit of a jump,” Maurer said.
But that has farmers hopeful the rain will come again, and soon.
“I’m hoping and praying that we get some rain, a significant amount to do some good. I probably won’t stop watering the blackberries anyway,” Taylor said.
The vendors remain optimistic about making it through this difficult summer weather.
“There was something like this about 10 years ago, we survived it, we’ll survive again,” Maurer said.
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