Drought causes problems for Arkansas agriculture

LITTLE ROCK — Temperatures in Arkansas continue to stay in the high 90s causing problems for all Arkansans. The agriculture industry, however, faces major problems due to the heat and lack of rain as it causes not only a drought hindering crops, but financial problems for many Arkansas farmers.

“They’re having to increase irrigation to keep the crops moving forward in order to produce the best yield possible,” said Chris Grimes, county extension agent with the Craighead County Extension Office.

Grimes along with other county extension agents assist farmers, livestock producers and homeowners in the county. Increasing irrigation has caused farmers to spend far more money than expected.

Mickey Dement, owner of Mickey and Charlotte Farms Partnership, has farmed with the partnership for 45 years and has been a part of the agriculture industry for almost 60 years overall. This year has been especially challenging.

“We’ve started earlier, the crops smaller, they are stressed due to the heat and dry weather and even though you irrigate, you can’t irrigate everything single inch,“ he said.

Dement, who grows rice, corn and soybeans, mentioned one of the biggest problems with the drought and hot weather is that it came earlier than normal.

“This started about the end of May and went all the way through June and into July, that made it worse,” said Dement.

Casey Hook, a Lake City farmer who has worked at Hook Family Farms for 14 years, agrees.

“It’s pretty serious, I haven’t been around as long as a lot of these old timers, but it’s the driest I have ever seen it,“ said Casey Hook.

He said that the lack of rain has caused him to increase irrigation like so many other farmers in Arkansas.

He also noted that high nighttime temperatures are also detrimental as crops can normally cool off during the nighttime.

Hook also mentioned that the constant watering cleans off many of the chemicals used to combat insects and keep the crops healthy. This causes more chemicals to be used on the crops, which hinders the farm financially as chemical prices have increased in the past few years, as well.

Dement also said that the higher fuel prices have become an issue as increased irrigation requires more fuel.

“Two years ago, a tanker load of diesel was $11,000 and now it’s $31,000 dollars so you are looking at a $20,000 increase for every tanker of fuel you buy,” said Dement.

He noted that most farmers burn around four tankers of fuel a year, but due to an early irrigation start and increased irrigation overall many farmers fear that more fuel tankers will be needed to keep their crops.

WEST HELENA — Police are searching for clues and suspects in an early Tuesday morning homicide.

According to a news release from the Helena-West Helena Police Department, the shooting happened at 4:30 a.m., on Tuesday, July 26.

Police discovered a car at the intersection of Mooney and Hawkins Streets.

Inside they found a white man dead of an apparent gunshot wound.

“Investigators are pursuing multiple leads but have not identified any suspects at this time,” the statement said.

Anyone with information should call 911 or the Helena-West Helena Police Department at (870) 572-3441.

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Red Cross faces historical blood shortage if donations don’t increase

JONESBORO — With 20 percent of the nation’s blood supply coming from high school and college blood drives, plus many regular donors taking summer vacations, the Red Cross said in a press release on Tuesday that it is facing a historical blood shortage in August.

Missouri and Arkansas Blood Services Division Account Manager for the American Red Cross Jerrica Fox said on Tuesday that the Red Cross saw a steep drop in blood donations over the last several months, with May and June being the lowest.

She said that she is worried about how the shortage is going to affect the local hospitals. She noted that she works with several hospitals and that she already

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has at least one hospital that is slated to potentially postpone surgeries as they prepare for the worst.

According to the press release, the summer months are an incredibly difficult time of year for the Red Cross to maintain a stable blood supply.

“We are asking donors to make appointments now to prevent a blood shortage this summer,” Fox said. “In June alone, the Red Cross collected approximately 12 percent fewer blood donations than needed, which is one of the largest monthly blood donation shortfalls in recent years.”

However as people are trying to get back to a new normal, Fox said that many regular donors are focused more on travel, vacations and things of that nature, which has caused the decline in donor turnout.

“They just don’t have as much time,” she said. “For such a large community, we only see about two percent or less at our blood drives.”

Now with the numbers so low, the Red Cross is looking for fun ways to increase donations and help prevent the blood shortage.

One way they hope to meet this challenge is the “Battle of the Banks” Blood Drive or the “Bankers Blood Drive Challenge,” which will be Tuesday, Aug. 2, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Earl Bell Community Center.

“Anyone can donate,” Fox stated, noting that you just walk-in and choose your favorite financial bank.

She said that all local banks are encouraged to participate in the friendly competition to see who can “deposit” the most blood donations into the Red Cross bank.

The participating banks will be split into two brackets as they compete, banks with less than 20 employees and banks with more than 20 employees.

The banks with the largest participation of donors based on their size will then earn bragging rights plus a traveling trophy.

“We are also encouraging banks to tell their bank customers

behalf,” she said.

For those who can’t attend Tuesday’s Battle of the Banks, Fox notes that there are many other drives happening as well over the next couple of weeks including:

• the Embassy Suites Blood Drive at the Red Wolf Convention Center, which starts today and runs through Friday, July 29, form noon until 5 p.m. both days.

• a blood drive at the NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital on Friday, July 29, from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.

• a blood drive at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on Wednesday, Aug. 3, from 1-5 p.m.

• a blood drive at Walnut Street Baptist Church on Friday, Aug. 5, from 1:30-5:30 p.m.

“We know everyone’s time is valuable, but we really want encourage you to visit a blood drive nearest you,” Fox said. Donors can also find upcoming blood drives on the Blood Donor App, by visiting their website at www. redcrossblood.org or by calling 1-800-RED CROSS or 1-800-733-2767.