Agriculture

Ag Commissioner Comer issues alert about crops, animal care

Knock on wood, please, because I may jinx myself by declaring publicly that my tomatoes look awesome. It is the healthiest set of plants and fruit that I can ever remember, honestly.

The plants are remarkably free of any pest problem, brown or yellowing leaf or rotting fruit. Most are heirloom varieties; they were fertilized once at planting with fish emulsion and immediately mulched with newspaper and pine straw.

I read somewhere that summer solstice marks the point that it is safe to harvest your garlic. By June 20 the garlic has “cloved-up” in this part of the country, but of course what happens before that date may give us a little wiggle room. This year I harvested on June 19, the earliest in memory, and the garlic looks good.

Wheat production may not be a farmer’s bread-and-butter crop in Shelby County, but thanks to an almost non-existent winter and a mild spring, most farmers in the county not only have enjoyed a slightly larger yield but also  already have harvested their crops.

“I just finished harvesting; now I’m getting ready to plant soybeans,” said Paul Hornback, who said he got 80 bushels of wheat per acre from the 100 acres he had planted on his farm near Bagdad.