MERRILL, IOWA -
The heat not only has us sweating, but it's making corn farmers very nervous.
We met up with a farmer out of Merrill, Iowa today to talk with him about the drought.
Danny Pick says about 50 percent of his crop is already lost. Like a ripping a bandage off, he just wants to get this season over with.
"I can only remember maybe one or two years of praying for rain, but nothing like this year," he said.
That's because the 2012 growing season is the worst year he has ever seen. He's only 29 years old, farming since 2004, and even he knows this isn't the first time a drought of this magnitude has happened.
"They say it goes in a cycle, you know, this year you talk to the older generation, some of them remember '36, they talk about 1956, even 1976, I've heard, and then 1988," Pick said.
He says, unfortunately what's done is done, and that means even if we were to get a major rain storm, the dried out kernels would remain the same.
The soil, which has several large cracks, isn't much better. And because Pick says he only anticipates a 50 percent yield from his corn crop, remaining positive about the survival of his soybeans keeps him going.
"You know they say beans are made in August, but you also need some rain up to that point, and I know beans like a little stress but this is a lot of stress," he said.
Pick says that stress affects everyone.
"It's gonna hurt the people going to the grocery store, its hurting our ethanol plants, it's a vicious cycle, it's gonna hurt everyone, especially in the mid-west," he said.
But like every cycle, it must run its course.
