Farmers along the East End of Long Island can be seen irrigating their fields more often as a result of recent sweltering conditions.

Jonathan Sujecki and his family have been farming land on the East End for five generations. He says that these drought conditions are typical for August. He works to keep his crops, vegetables and nursery plants properly hydrated in these hot conditions by watering the fields almost non-stop.

“It’s a full-time job irrigating so a lot of other things start to go on the back burner,” says Sujecki. “You get backed up and there are only so many things you can do in a day.”

Robert Nolan, from Deer Run Farms, says the recent heat has taken a toll on his vegetables in Brookhaven.

“The yield has gone down,” says Nolan. “When the weather was cool, the yields were great – 90-95%, now we’re 70-75%.”

Both Nolan and Sujecki say they do not have adequate supplies of water in wells, but that water needs to be pumped out of the ground using diesel. They say this causes costs to irrigate the fields to quickly rise.