By Noah Jeffries, The Exponent Telegram
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — West Virginia has been experiencing strange weather over the past few days. According to agriculture experts, there are pros and cons to the recent storms.
Jennifer Friend, a WVU agriculture and natural resources extension agent in Harrison County, said the recent weather may have impacted some farmers more than others.
“It depends on where you’re at,” she said. “For some folks, it may have flooded some hay meadows, pastures and stuff like that.”
Ronnie Helmondollar, program director for agriculture and natural resources at WVU, said that while the weather can cause harm to plants and soil, the damage could have been worse if the storms had occurred later in the year.
“Fortunately we’re not into full gardening season yet,” he said. “There have probably been a few crops planted, but all the moisture we’ve gotten is certainly going to delay that planting time a little bit, and the cold days we’re experiencing are certainly not going to let soil temperatures rise, which we need for gardening, field crops and those kinds of things.
“If something like this had happened in July when crops were ready to harvest, it would certainly be a different situation. Right now, there’s still not a lot of production in place yet.”