Drought and drainage

By Vinayak Shedekar

As you get busy with the harvest season, year 2024 is likely to go down in your books as one of the most challenging growing seasons. The 2024 planting season started off with some wet weather early April, followed by warm weather for about two weeks before some rain interruptions in first week of May. The mid-May weather allowed for a few good planting days, followed by further planting delays, especially for soybeans, due to a long spell of wet weather into early June. The OCJ reported that “wheat harvest and corn silking was ahead of normal” (crop progress, July 8) in early July. However, starting mid-July, the “faucet” turned off, especially in central and southeastern Ohio, and we quickly spiraled down the path of drought conditions, that worsened through August and September. Subsurface drainage plays a major role in the water budget in any given year. Here are some of my thoughts and observations about the connection between drought and drainage.… Continue reading