NewsChannel 5.com - Nashville, Tennessee - Rain Brings Late Harvest To Mid-State Farmers

Rain Brings Late Harvest To Mid-State Farmers

By Amanda Hara

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Harvest came three weeks late for mid-state farmers waiting for the wet weather to end. 

Ray Smith's 1,500 acre farm looks more like a soybean crop than a slot machine. After this season, he said farming is more like playing a hand.  

"You don’t have to go to Las Vegas; you take $300,000 out in the spring and hopefully pay it back in the fall. It's definitely a gamble,” said Smith. 

This year, Smith hoped for temperate weather, only to get hit with three weeks of crop-ruining rain.  

"You wish you make money, but you just hope to break even,” said Smith. 

Smith and farmers like him took a hit compliment of Mother Nature. Smith said the rotten beans that rain destroyed are only half as effective as one healthy bean.  

It will take more rotten beans to produce things like cattle feed-which will get more expensive, and so will the beef at grocery stores. 

Corn, cotton and hay crops were also heavily affected by the rain in the mid-state.

Email: ahara@newschannel5.com