LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentuckiana has seen a sprinkle of rain or two in the past month, but it hasn't been enough to feed the thirsty crops outside of Hanover, Indiana.
When driving north into the town on Indiana State Highway 62, there's plenty of brown and yellow crop fields lining the road along the way.
Co-owner of Brawner Farms, located just south of Hanover, Gregory Brawner said at this point of the year their crops are supposed to a healthy green.
"Yeah it's...I mean it's disheartening," Brawner said. He added that he hasn't seen a dry season like this since 2012.
Brawner said the farm was supposed to start harvesting its corn and beans next month, but Mother Nature is making him nervous.
It was clear that most of the soil was dry soil and some crops even looked withered and crispy. Brawner said other famers in the same area are experiencing the same issue.
Brawner Farms shared drone footage of their northern location. In the video you can see a sea of brown with patches of green in between.
The Hanover and Madison areas are currently under moderate drought conditions.
"You don't want to see any corn crop abort those kernels," Brawner said. "Or more or less a bean crop that maybe if it's flowering or or going through that extra growth stage, it may not have enough moisture to add that extra pod to fill that node in. So when you get the lack of moisture you're not going to get that extra yield or maintain that good yield."
The beans and corn on their main farm have received plenty of moisture from previous showers and were planted at the right time. But Brawner said that the rain did not reach their other locations leaving those crops thirsty.
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"I've seen it once before but in the last few years no," Brawner said. "We've been fortunate to have some adequate rains in need of time frames."
He said Indiana farms don't rely on irrigation systems so it's really up to the kindness of mother nature to hydrate the fields.
"Irrigation would be a big plus for us but that's something we do not have for our farm at this time," Brawner said. "Yeah you can say in the last few years we've had good adequate rainfall through the growing season. So you kind of don't think about it as much. But now it's like 'boy I wish we had irrigation especially on the fields we've talked about because that would definitely help.'"
Brawner hopes a good amount of rain is on its way from the remnants of Hurricane Francine so his fields can be full of color once again, but he's not holding his breathe.
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