Worries of a tough growing season ahead were already taking shape during the last harvest.
"Let’s get some precip, as in rain, we’re just depleted in the ground.
You know we come into some 80-degree weather here in a month.
We get three or four days of that and we’re gone," DeKalb farmer Eric Sampson told News-Press Now back in March.
When asked what farmers need most going into August, he replied "Rain.
It’s just depleted.” Sampson farms corn, beans and cattle, and all three have suffered from a dry winter, spring and now summer.
He said the little bit of rain the area has seen helps, but not much.
You know, it makes things smell good and it helps, but it’s gone again," Sampson said.
"That’s mainly in northern Missouri, Northwest Missouri."
“Whether it’s an agriculture impact, a water impact, a fire impact, any impacts that folks associate with drought, we would definitely encourage them to submit those.” The University of Missouri Extension has set up a web page on its site for just that purpose, requesting photos and reports from anyone to better assess drought conditions, especially farmers like Sampson, who said he has seen worst droughts in his lifetime and will continue to hope for the best.