Delmarva crops survive nor'easter

For all its bluster and longevity, last week's nor'easter left Delmarva's crops not much worse for wear, farmers say.

The storm dumped about 4 inches of rain as it lingered over the area from Tuesday through Saturday and generated winds of up to 30 mph as far inland as Salisbury.

When the storm moved on, yellowing soybean plants stood here and there in pond-size pools of water. Straw-colored fields of feed corn were bent inches below their tips, all pointing in the same direction: west.

It could have been worse, said Donna King, an agent with King Crop Insurance in Georgetown. According to the forecast at the beginning of the week, the storm front was merely the first round of wet weather, with Hurricane Joaquin following right behind.

But the 12 inches of rain and punishing wind never came to pass. Joaquin steered out to sea instead.

“We skated by this compared to what it could have been," King said.

As of midday Monday, no one had called her office to file a crop insurance claim, she said. She wasn't getting any reports either of large swaths of corn being blown flat against the ground — which can hobble harvesting operations and lead to lower yields.

"It's like leaving dollar bills in the fields," King said.

The one-two punch of storms threatened to reverse what has been a strong year for corn and soybeans, the peninsula's most iconic crops, said Jessie Flores, a University of Maryland Extension official based in Snow Hill.

“We were preparing for and expecting more rainfall than we got," Flores said. "Around here, we’re used to nor’easters.”

Nearly half of Maryland's grain corn crop had been harvested as of Sept. 27, according to the most recent report available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And many farmers were racing to reap as much as they could before last week's rains washed out their work.

About 80 percent of the corn crop was listed in "good" or "excellent" condition.

In Delaware, the harvest was 65 percent complete, and 71 percent was said to be in good or better shape, the USDA reported.

The rainfall was a welcome sight for soybeans. Withering amid dry weather, the proportion in at least good condition in Maryland stood at 71 percent before the storm, down from 76 percent from the same period in 2014.

At her farm near Laurel, Joan Kirk said she was happy her soybeans could get a badly needed drink, but "maybe in some places they have more than they needed." Of the less than 500 acres of corn still needing to be harvested from the original 1,500-acre planting, very little had blown over, she added.

The surplus of water shouldn't lead to rot as long as long as the rain stays away for several days, as the current forecast suggests, King said.

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