The weather this summer has left a bitter taste in the mouths of sweet corn farmers.

Constant rain throughout June turned into a drought throughout most of July and August, causing yields this year to dwindle.

“It's been terrible,” said David Jones, who grows sweet corn on his farm near Cabot. “It's the worst growing season I've ever had.”

Jones is perhaps most known in the county for his turkeys and chickens, but he also grows sweet corn, field corn and soybeans.

Each of his crops has hurt by the summer's weather.

“We lost 80 percent of our sweet corn because of the drought,” he said, adding his field corn and soybeans are about 20 percent below their expected yield.

Sweet corn was hit particularly hard because of the way it grows in soil, even compared to field corn.

“Sweet corn is very sensitive to soil,” Jones said. “It has shallower roots, so dry ground affects it more. It's not able to absorb the moisture.”

But too much rain also causes the crop to rot.

Jones is not alone with his struggles.

“The wet June set the base for a bad year,” said Luke Fritz, executive director of the county Farm Service Agency. “It made everything more difficult. It hurt the farmers, who won't have the revenue they were expecting.”

The National Weather Service reported about 8 inches of rain fell in Butler County in June — nearly twice as much as the average rainfall.

A heavy rainstorm on July 8 dumped about 1.22 inches of rain, but less than an inch fell through the rest of the month.

August didn't fare better, with only five days having more than a quarter inch of rain.

“It rained every other day in June then when the faucet turned off, it didn't rain for 12 weeks,” Jones said.

Jones said the poor weather has led more wild animals to feed on what crops did grow.

“The deer start eating your corn,” he said. “If it's a good year, the deer will have enough food in the woods.”

Jones said deer will eat the top off corn stock then it won't produce anything.

Raccoons also frequently find their ways into farms.

“The weather affects every animal,” he said. “It's a very complicated ecosystem. And this year didn't go well.”

Fritz said rains in late September were not enough to offset the dry summer — the damage had been done.

“Lot of crops are below average this year,” he said. “There's not much that can be done about that now.”

The disappointing summer came after a pretty good start to the year.

“May was good for planting, but June just ended it,” Fritz said.

While sweet corn was hit the hardest due to the drought, Fritz said the steady rain to start the summer was detrimental to a number of crops, particularly soy beans.

“Soy was hurt by the early wet weather, then the three weeks of dry hot weather dried any pods there were out,” he said.

Harold Foertsch, owner of the Har-Lo Farm in Jefferson Township, said dealing with weather is part of the job requirements of being a farmer.

“Nothing you can do about it. What happens, happens. You just have to deal with it as it comes,” he said.

Foertsch grows a variety of crops on about 1,200 owned and rented acres, including corn, soy, hay, wheat and oats.

He agreed that the weather took its toll on the crops.

“It sure did, big time,” he said. “Hay has been the big thing for us. We couldn't get the first cut because of the rain. Then there was no rain to make it (the second cut) grow.”

A shortage of hay has led to higher costs of feed for farm animals.

“The pasture growth is not there,” Fritz said. “Some farms don't have the supply of feed needed. I've seen hundreds of acres already mowed down.”

Foertsch said the poor weather comes around every so often.

“History repeats itself,” he said. “We'll have two or three good years, then it'll be bad. I've been through this before more than once. You have to take the good days with the bad days, when they average out you can make a living.”

Jones agreed that there is little to do but carry on.

“Our turkeys are growing fine — the weather doesn't affect them,” he joked.