Arkansas farmers burn diesel, daylight to get in crops before Isaac

Arkansas farmers were burning daylight and diesel Tuesday (August 28), racing to get as much of their mature crops out of the field as possible ahead of Isaac’s arrival on Friday.

The five-day forecast cone Tuesday afternoon still had the center of what would become tropical depression Isaac in central Arkansas at 7 a.m. Friday. The storm was expected to become extra-tropical the following day and track to the northeast up the Ohio River Valley.

Rainfall projections show totals higher than 4 inches expected in a pear-shaped area stretching from northern Chicot County to about White County -- prime row-crop areas.  Much of the rest of the Arkansas Delta was expected to receive more than 2.5 inches.

“We are running around the clock where possible on rice,” Brent Griffin, Prairie County Extension staff chair, said Tuesday. “One farmer was harvesting at 6:30 a.m. today and will run as long as wind blows or there are trucks to fill.”

The lines at the elevators at Hazen and Des Arc are six rows deep and the elevators were keeping extended hours.

Isaac and Mid-South crops - updates

In Lonoke County: “Looks like trucks are backed up at the rice mill waiting to get unloaded,” said Keith Perkins, Lonoke County Extension agent.

“Instead of the calm before the storm, this is the harvest rush before the storm,” Perkins said. “Too bad we will not be able to finish before the storm hits. We can only hope that we get only rain and no big winds.”

In Phillips County, Extension Agent Robert Goodson said, “everyone who can is working.”

There weren’t any big lines at elevators yet, he said, “People are nervous.”

High winds and heavy rain can flatten crops or cause grain heads to sprout or get moldy.

One row crop farmer in Lonoke County said he was spending every second Tuesday trying to get his crop in. “I can talk after this storm comes through.”