Many in the Top of Utah may have forgotten the torrential rains and flooding this past spring, but area farmers are just fully feeling the effects in lower yields and late harvests caused by wet ground and late planting.
And it could get worse.
"If they want to pray, they need to pray for good weather," said Jim Hill, of North Ogden, who with his sons, Jeff and Jerry Hill, farms about 1,800 acres in Box Elder and Weber counties.
He was talking to people who want to wish him and other farmers well in their 11th-hour rush to gather what they've grown and plant for the coming season.
"We're a month behind," he said. "It's cost us a considerable amount of money because we are late."
And in order for him and others to begin to recoup, he's hoping for good weather until this time next month.
"If it turns out cold and stormy in the next two weeks, we're in real trouble," he said. "I need good weather to at least Thanksgiving to get everything done we need to get done."
It was a bad year for farming in the Top of Utah, and that fact has never been more clear than right now.
"This year is a little different," said Rulon Fowers, of Hooper. "We are about three weeks behind. We've been three weeks behind all year."
Fowers is a farmer and a member of the state board of directors for the Utah Farm Bureau Federation.
While he expressed concern over the lateness of the harvest, Fowers was also grateful for the current good weather.
"I think it's been a great fall to harvest," he said. "The weather forecast is for good weather through the end of October. We hope that's right."
Fowers said famers have been grateful for a delayed frost, noting watermelons and other tender crops that have lasted longer into the fall than usual.
"It's been about 30 days longer (than) we had a tender frost," he said. "That's really helped the harvest."
And he said there still hasn't been a hard frost.
"I'm not sure it even damaged the tomatoes," he said. "Normally, we can get a killing frost about Sept. 15."
Jed Diamond, of Roy, who is now cutting a hay crop a month late, said even with good weather he'll have to be careful about when he bales the hay.
Seasonal heavy dew will keep the hay from drying out properly, he said. "I'll have to bale it late in the day."
And even then, he said he'll have to be careful.
"Baled hay that's wet a lot of times will start a fire," he said. "It's really important that you get it dry, or you can have real trouble."
If it rains hard while he's trying to dry the freshly cut hay, he said he'll lose it altogether.
But he said he's glad he doesn't grow corn.
"Luckily, we are not in the corn business," he said. "I know the corn people are way late. They are hating it. I'm pretty sure that a lot of corn will not get its full yield, (because) it was so late when they planted it."
Diamond farms ground in Clinton, Syracuse and West Point, where he said his wheat crop suffered by 35 percent this year.
Hill farms in Warren, Marriott-Slaterville, Farr West, Plain City, Willard and Snowville on ground he both owns and rents, and he and his sons run combines for about 3,000 acres of wheat grown by others. So he got a look at the vastly diminished yield for that crop in the area.
"Because of the wet spring, they didn't get a good start, so it didn't grow very good," he said.
And the reduced crop also was prone to a disease called striped rust.
Those farmers who wanted to spend extra money sprayed to kill the rust, Hill said.
Those who didn't lost 50 percent of their crop.
This weekend Hill was harvesting corn for animal feed, generally referred to as grain corn.
He said ideally, the corn needs to be 50 percent drier than it currently is, but he didn't know if he had time or if the weather would allow it to dry that much.
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