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Rain showers forecast tonight into next week will help farmers, but the area is still going to need a lot more as the growing season continues, forecasters and farmers said Tuesday.
Weather conditions have been fairly dry recently, with rainfall about 2 inches below normal, said Meteorologist Nicholas Beaty of the National Weather Service in State College.
The rain the area received last week helped some, but consistent precipitation -- and warmer nights -- are keys to a successful growing season.
Marty Yahner of Yahner Brothers Farms in Patton, said the lack of rain has made spring and summer challenging.
"Mother Nature likes to throw challenges at farms; no two growing seasons are alike," he said.
This year, the planting season for crops such as oats and corn was great because it was warm.
Then the cold and dry weather followed, which caused the crops in the region and even across the state to fall behind where they should be.
Yahner said last week's rain helped his crops, and he hopes it keeps going.
"We are expecting rain starting Wednesday evening that will be pretty widespread," Beaty said Tuesday afternoon, noting the next few days will "be a pretty rainy period."
According to the National Weather Service's website, the showers are expected to continue into at least early next week.
For the rest of the summer up until September, the weather service is predicting normal amounts of precipitation, Beaty said.
If so, that will be good news for farmers.
Laverne Nolt of Laverne's Produce of Curryville said the recent weather conditions have not affected his business too much yet, but the lack of rain has caused him to irrigate more for his crop of cantaloupes.
Nolt said his watermelon crops need about 2 inches of water every week.
"We just hope for some rain everyday, especially for the corn and soybeans crops -- I'm just hoping the yields will be good for those," he said.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced a statewide drought watch from a lack of rainfall during the spring, and a winter that brought very little snowfall to many areas in the state, according to Secretary Rich Negrin.
Yahner said this year is reminding a lot of area farmers of 2012 and 1988, years when droughts were really bad.
"The difference with those years is the drought started later in the year, but this year those conditions started earlier," he said.
It is worse to have wet weather early in the growing season, because crops won't put down deep roots to get water. Then, when dry weather sets in, it is harder on the plants trying to get water.
"Because of this, the oat crop might be half of what it should be," Yahner said.
He said that while the whole growing season is important, farmers need timely rain, with even just half an inch once a week being good.
"Whenever it stops raining, we are 10 days from a drought," Yahner said.
Louie Brenneman of Brenneman Brothers Farms in Williamsburg said that as long as they keep getting rain, his corn, soybean, hay and wheat crops will be good.
"Corn, soybeans and hay are behind this year because of the dry weather," he said.
While the rain from last week did help, they will need about an inch of rain every 10 days to have a somewhat normal yield, Brenneman said.
His wheat fields are fine at the moment, he said, because wheat is a dry weather crop.
Other than the lack of precipitation, his concern is with the cool nights.
Corn grows more at night, and does the best with temperatures between 60 and 80 degrees.
"There have been some nights where the temps were in the 40s," he said. "Corn doesn't like that and it won't grow right."
Hail also causes problems, with Brenneman pointing out that some farms lost their entire barley crop due to hail.
"Things can change so much, and the weather is one of the biggest contributors we can't control," said Jim Benshoff of Benshoff Farms in New Germany.
His business produces vegetables, seeds, hay and straw, and he said no two years are the same.
While conditions have been dry, his crops aren't at the critical stage yet, he said, as since June 12, his fields have received about 2.5 inches of rain.
But peppers, for example, are semi-tropical and do not like the cold at all, Benshoff said.
"Too many cold shocks are not good for them," he said.
Farmers pretty much just take whatever Mother Nature provides, Nolt said.
"People ask me about what a normal year is, but I don't know what that is because I've never seen it," Nolt said.
Mirror Staff Writer Cati Keith is at 814-946-7535.