Rain over past couple weeks have helped McHenry County farmers, but more is still needed

Recent rains were “heaven sent” for Mchenry County area farmers, who have been enduring a drought.

Parts of Lake and McHenry counties were running rainfall deficits upward of 10 inches behind normal earlier this year as they suffered extreme drought conditions, but since then, some thunderstorms and heavy rain have hit the area.

The rainfall took some parts of McHenry County from “extreme drought” as classified by the U.S. Drought Monitor produced by the University of Nebraska at Lincoln to “severe drought,” although some parts of the county remain “extreme.”

The rains were “certainly was heaven-sent, and we’re very grateful for it,” said John Bartman, a McHenry County area farmer.

Dan Volkers, manager of the McHenry County Farm Bureau, said farmers he’s been in contact with have seen a tremendous improvement with their crops.

McHenry County has a network of 37 groundwater monitoring wells to track changes to water levels in its sand and gravel aquifers, which have been at some of the lowest levels they’ve seen in years because of the drought.

The recent rain hasn’t done a lot to get these back to normal levels, McHenry County water resources specialist Scott Kuykendall said, although a couple wells have gone from being at “low” to now being at below-normal or normal amounts of water.

“A lot of the wells were 20 feet down,” Kuykendall said. “The half-inch rain here and there isn’t going to recover that where it is most important.”

Even if the area does see successive heavy rains, it will still take a long time for that water to infiltrate down and recharge the water table, Kuykendall added.

The somewhat wetter weather did help with farmers’ herbicides, as most need some level of moisture in order to activate.

It also looks like people who raise hay will be able to get a second cutting, which Bartman said is very important.

Some McHenry County farmers grow hay to feed their own animals as well as to sell to other customers, providing a secondary income.

But still, more rain is needed as plants continue to grow.

“We need to have more rain during this time of the year than any, believe it or not,” Bartman said. “Plants really consume a lot.”

Corn can need as much as an inch or two of precipitation a week, he said.

“The corn at this time is is like a child going through puberty,” Bartman said. “It’s just growing so quickly, and it needs so much food and nutrients.”

There was some damage to crops because of the dry weather, Volkers said.

“Earlier in the year, some crops had not taken off as it was too dry to even germinate the seeds,” Volkers said. “Some of those didn’t come through. And there’ll be some challenges of things germinating at different times, so some of the crop may get mature faster than some of the crop that took off later in the year.”

While McHenry County has seen some storms, other locations saw even more water, Bartman pointed out. Multiple areas of the state also saw tornado warnings and major thunderstorms just a couple of weeks ago.

Whether it’s a climate that’s too dry or one that’s too wet, Volkers said, farmers always have to be mindful of the weather.

“A major rainfall event that causes flooding could still cause some trouble or could wash out some of the crop,” Volkers said. “There’s still still a concern on on both ends, whether the faucet turns on too much or the faucet turns off again.”