Butler County farmers had a good summer growing season.

Luke Fritz, executive director of the county Farm Service Agency, said rain this year has helped farmers out tremendously.

“I look for us to have really good yields this year,” Fritz said.

So far this year, the county got 26.75 inches of rain. This is slightly below normal, but rainfall this summer has been more than 2.5 inches above normal.

At this time last year, the county had 23.9 inches of rain, about 4.5 inches below normal.

Fritz said field and sweet corn looks to be good this year.

“Just tremendous growth,” Fritz said.

He said oats were a disappointment because the rain led to weeds and grass growing in oat fields, making it difficult to harvest.

“That would be the one negative,” Fritz said.

He said soybeans also will do well, although there may have been a little too much rain for them. He said the drier fields will yield more soybeans.

Fritz also said hay may be a little short this year because of the additional wetness.

Randy Smith of Smith Farms in Washington Township said it has been a good season for his corn and soybeans.

“In general, it's been a pretty good year,” Smith said.

He said mild temperatures in July and August have not allowed the corn to mature as early as usual.

“Everything's going to be a little later this year,” Smith said.

He said his soybeans may be “a little too good,” noting that the plants are tall and starting to lean. He said he will have to keep an eye on them.

“We've had some of the tallest soybeans we've ever had,” Smith said.

He said this year is better than last year. He said there was too little rain last year, but there may have been too much rain this year.

“You can't have a happy medium,” Smith said. “You've got to give up something to gain something.”

Tim King, lead grower at Freedom Farms in Middlesex Township, also is optimistic about the growing season.

“We're going to have a good growing year,” King said. “We do appreciate the rain.”

However, he noted that rain helps spread many diseases that affect vegetables, which can be detrimental to crop yield.

He said tomatoes particularly are being affected by disease. Additionally, tomatoes prefer dry, hot weather as opposed to the cooler, wetter weather this summer.

King said it is possible the farm could lose up to half of its late tomato crop.

He said some of these diseases can be controlled with pesticides, but he generally tries to avoid using them.

Overall, he said the farm has not lost too many crops.

Ken Metrick, owner of Metrick's Harvest View Farm in Connoquenessing Township, said the summer went well for the most part.

“We've had better seasons, we've had a lot worse seasons,” Metrick said.

He said it started off too dry and then was too wet. The extra rain made diseases more likely in vegetables.

He said tomatoes have fared the worst, but most others were fine. Weed control also was an issue.

Metrick said corn and soybeans were doing well, and he has produced a lot of apples, peaches and plums.

“We're very pleased with what we're getting,” Metrick said. “All in all, it's been good.”