FARMERS ACROSS SOUTHERN MARYLAND are struggling to keep their crops both alive and consumable this summer.  Charles, St. Mary’s and lower Calvert Counties have been hardest hit by this summer’s drought, according to Governor Martin O’Malley in his speech at La Plata’s town hall Thursday.  The Governor’s reports estimate a statewide loss of 30% to 60% of this year’s crops. 

Earlier that Thursday morning, St. Mary’s County Commissioner Thomas A. Mattingly, Sr. (District 2) told Governor O’Malley that St. Mary’s County reports indicate 50% – 70% of their field crops would be unusable come harvest. 

The Bowlings and some of their produce. 
Photos by Tara Dailey for TheBayNet.com
Russell Burch’s produce stand in Waldorf.
Photo by Heather Bartlett for TheBayNet.com.

At Saturday’s La Plata farmers’ market, local produce farmers Howard and Dawn Bowling of Faulkner told The Bay Net that they had to irrigate to keep their produce alive this year.  Thanks to the irrigation, the Bowlings have fruits and vegetables which are full-size, ripe and edible, but not all of it.  

According to Dawn, their peach trees should produce fruit until September, but she doesn’t think her crop will grow much more.  Only one third of their current peach crop is properly developed. While produce crops are suffering under the drought, Dawn and fellow farmer Russell Burch of Waldorf both say it’s field crops like hay, soybeans and corn which are particularly hard hit.

Irrigation has been the answer for both Bowlings and Burch.  But unlike their mid-western counterparts, most of our area farmers are not equipped with field irrigation machinery.  The Bowlings aren’t.  They rigged drip-line irrigation systems into their small produce fields.  According to Dawn, the low pressure delivery of that method allows them to conserve water while they save their crops from scorching.  Hay, soybeans and corn, however, grow in much bigger fields where such methods can’t accommodate the larger scale.

Dawn explained the difficulties her neighbors and fellow growers are having this season.  Local livestock owners dread the thought of how expensive it will be to feed their animals through this winter.  Several of her neighbors have had to dig deeper household wells because the water table has fallen so severely.  Burch has limited his plants this season.

“A lot of what I normally put in the ground I can’t because it’s so dry,” Burch told The Bay Net. 

Area wildlife are also suffering with a lack of food.  Local drivers don’t usually begin to see significant quantities of deer until mid to late autumn.  Deer usually spend the summer grazing in local woodlands.  This year, however, our wildl