With more than 90-thousand acres of corn planted each year, York County is the state's corn capitol. But with below-average rainfall and high temperatures this summer, the year's crop is expected to come up short.

"Our corn yields will be off at least 50 percent on average for the entire county."

Mark Goodson is a soil expert with Penn State's York County cooperative extension. He says this year's weather has been like a roller-coaster ride for farmers in the region.

"There were about six or seven weeks of good moisture weather when the farmers were planting their crops and the crops got out of the ground and grew well vegetatively. However when the ears were supposed to form we were experiencing very high temperatures and very dry conditions, and we didn't get pollination of corn ears."

Goodson says, in order to salvage what's left of the crop, many farmers are already harvesting their corn — which they wouldn't normally do until late September.

Farmer Bill Buser says he'll be lucky if he brings in half of the 150 bushels of corn he sells in a typical year. But he says many of his neighbors are feeling the drought in other ways.

"Talked to a beef farmer. And his cattle always got water out of the stream, and the stream through his pasture went dry. So that is a major concern. The water table."

Buser says this year's been a lousy year for agriculture — but recent rainfall gives him hope for next year.

More information's available on the web at GreenWorks.tv. I'm Brad Linder.