Waiting on the weather

By Brianna Smith

It’s been a wet spring. Rain gauges have stayed busy. The Ohio’s Country Journal and Ohio Ag Net crew are spread out across Ohio, so many of our weekly meetings start with a quick weather recap. The moral of the story is that it’s been a wet May, no matter where you’re at in the state.

And yet, there’s an old saying I’ve heard more than once: We owe our existence to six inches of topsoil and the fact that it rains.

It’s a grounding reminder. Without rain, we wouldn’t have much of anything.

That truth hit especially hard last summer, when parts of Southern Ohio were in a declared state of emergency due to severe drought conditions. Crops struggled, pastures dried up, and hay supplies were stretched dangerously thin. The stress was real, and the impact is still being felt today.

I talked to a farmer who said, “It is worse for my mental health and stress when it doesn’t rain than when it does.”… Continue reading