By Clint Thompson
Drought conditions are worsening along the Gulf in South Alabama. Some areas are experiencing it worse than others. It largely depends on the soil type which varies in the area, says Jacob Kelley, regional Extension agent in Southwest Alabama.
“I’ve got some guys that have some more clay soils and they’re kind of okay. As long as they get a little bit of spit of rain, they can work that soil and get it good enough to form beds. But the guys with sand, they’re always one day away from a drought,” Kelley said. “With those guys, it can be extremely difficult. You can’t really build a good bed with the sandy soil if we hadn’t had any rain. They’re out there doing their rain dances and stuff, making sure that they can get some moisture and probably lay in beds early in the morning. Sometimes you can get enough dew on the ground and that might help you out enough to form those beds up. But in those drier areas, they’re just waiting for rain.”
Drought Monitor
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the southern halves of Mobile and Baldwin counties are observing abnormally dry conditions, while the northern halves are experiencing either moderate dry or severe drought conditions. Those conditions are magnified in sandier soils.
“Especially in our area of the Gulf Coast, I mean, you can go 100 yards one direction and be completely sandy, down to six feet. And then you can go 100 yards in the other direction, it’s like a gumbo muck soil that used to be a bog or something like that. It holds water,” Kelley said. “It’s two extreme opposites when we deal with our soil. There’s some places that have it, you know, they’ve got the best soil ever.
“Like a lot of Baldwin County has really great soil for production. Little sandy, but mostly loamy, and so it works out really well and really productive soil.”