USA - 2015 yields many 'raw emotions' in farmers
South Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers is the state's lead agricultural official, but he is also a Bowman row-crop farmer.
The historic floods last month dumped 15 inches of rain on his farm, leaving him wondering if there will be any crop to harvest this year.
"This is a lot more difficult than most of the disasters," he said. "We face a lot of decisions right around harvest time. A lot of timing issues makes it the worst time it could happen."
Weathers got a bird's-eye view of the storm immediately following the heavy rains.
What he saw were thousands of farm acres under water, farm buildings standing in the midst of waters and farm roads washed away.
The SCDA, along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency and Clemson Extension Service, began initial damage assessments with preliminary estimates being that direct crop losses from the flood may exceed $300 million.
Low-lying farmland adjacent to river systems and creeks was most severely impacted. The crops affected include peanuts, cotton, fall vegetables, soybeans and some timber.
It was a one-two punch to area farmers.
"You were dealing with a drought the whole time you were trying to produce a crop; now you are dealing with flooded fields to get the crop out," Weathers said. "It is a complete swing of the pendulum."
Weathers said he has never seen such a year in agriculture.
"We have had hurricanes. They come through and they give us seven to eight inches or rain and wind damage," he said. "It can blow a crop down. This is totally different."
What farmers will do will vary according to their individual needs, but Weathers said crop insurance will most likely be needed to help the farmer survive 2015.
"It is insurance," he said. "It does not make you whole."
Moldy and overly mature peanuts, discolored cotton and low-quality lint were all concerns as crops sat in the field waiting after the flooding.
"If a cotton stalk is standing out there without its leaves protecting it, then that 15 inches of rain knocked a fair amount of that cotton to the ground," Weathers said. "That is not even harvestable."
This is lost revenue, Weathers said, adding that an acre of peanuts can be between $900 and $1,000. In The T&D Region alone, he estimated there were about 15,000 acres of peanuts dug up waiting to dry out and be harvested.
"The decision to dig is almost picking the lesser of two evils," he said.
Weathers said the SCDA is advising farmers to "know the details" of their policy to determine whether or not harvesting makes economic sense.
He said the department is also looking to find ways to help those few farmers who don't have crop insurance coverage to survive another year.
"There was very little usage of non-traditional crop insurance policies," he said, noting under the new farm bill crop, insurance is mandatory.
Weathers said many farmers are going to struggle to get by this year.
"There are no rich farmers who haven't worked hard and very hard for a lot of years to help pay off some of their debt so their cash flows are better," Weathers said. "The markets over the last two years have allowed farmers to invest back into their farms ... all designed around making them more able to withstand the next dry season."
Vegetable and fruit farmers do not have crop insurance. They have whole farm revenue insurance, which is a new part of the farm bill.
Weathers said the federal government has been slow in providing information to farmers on how this insurance works.
"The federal regulators of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Congress need to take some responsibility for being so late in telling that group of farmers, 'Here is what the insurance will do for you and here is what it will cost,'" Weathers said. "We are going to try to make that case in terms of our farmers."
Though row-crop farmers have been the hardest hit by the historic floods, poultry farmers are working to repair access roads to get feed trucks to their flocks. Livestock and poultry assessments continue in impacted areas.
"We did not have any problems getting to our dairy farmers," said Weathers, who was formerly in the dairy business. Today, he along with his brother, Landy, transport milk for about 25 dairy farms across the state.
Timber harvest will resume when the logging roads are passable, with the most heavily impacted areas being those with newly planted pines.
"We have been through crises before," Weathers said, referring to the early 1980s politically influenced grain embargo. "We survived that and that was a real difficult decade. This one will be similar."
The embargo banned the export of grain and technology to the Soviet Union in response to the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The embargo was in place for a little more than a year, causing commodity prices to drop.
Weathers said 2015 may cause some older farmers to question farming another year, and there have been a lot of "raw emotions" for many farmers when looking at their investment under water.
But Weathers said the department is there for farmers.
"We want to turn over every stone we can to provide whatever assistance we can," he said.
State Farmers Market
Beyond the flooding, the SCDA has also experienced some other challenges. One is with the State Farmers Market.
The market, which is a public-private partnership between the Department of Agriculture and private businesses, has not been able to bring in the retail revenue and the non-market revenue experienced at the former Bluff Road site located across the street from the University of South Carolina football stadium. It has been running at a deficit.
The lack of revenue has been supplemented through General Assembly appropriations of about $300,000 a year since 2013. The market opened in 2010.
State auditors have suggested the Department of Agriculture take steps to improve oversight of vendors and developers to increase revenue, such as taking care to collect certain fees and increasing rent for buildings on the site. Another suggestion has been to charge fees, such as admission, for special events and parking.
Weathers has taken issue with the audit, noting the review does not present a complete picture of the market and its operations.
"The appropriation to the farmers market supports all three farmers markets (Greenville, Columbia and Florence) in the state," Weathers said, noting taxpayer support of state farmers markets is common practice in neighboring states of Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
"When we were at the old market, we had an extra source of revenue from parking football fans. When we went to the new market, we thought we would generate enough business to replace that. We were wrong."
The relocation of the farmers market from Richland to Lexington counties was controversial.
Construction began on a new market in Richland County at Interstate 77 in June 2006, but a survey of wholesalers showed the location might not be viable.
Two years later, the General Assembly authorized up to $22.5 million for relocating the market to Lexington County.
The year-round market on about 200 acres off U.S. 321 has a sprawling campus consisting of a retail and an agribusiness section.
Weathers, who came into office after the decision to move the market, defended the new location, saying its visibility is ideal near the interstate and it has room for plenty of expansion.
"It does well as a wholesale market and it does well for farmers to come and sell within the market to wholesalers," Weathers said, noting from this standpoint, the market has been a success.
"We have had a struggle making it into a retail market like we had in downtown Columbia. The challenge to make it a successful retail market is still there."
Weathers said in many ways, smaller community farmers markets are competing with the state farmers market.
In an effort to increase revenues, Weathers said the farmers market will look to add more events to increase traffic.
One hope for increasing traffic flow is to locate the S.C. Department of Natural Resources' recreation division hunting and boating licensing office in one of the buildings and to move a retail market into one of the sheds on the campus. Currently, DNR offices are on Assembly Street in downtown Columbia.
DNR spokesman Brett Witt said the option has been discussed but a decision has not been finalized.
"The model of most every state farmers market is they are not self-sustained," Weathers said. "It has been my goal since we have achieved it before."
Major wholesale vendors present at the market include Clayton Rawl Farms Inc., SuperSod, Senn Brothers Inc., Severt & Sons Produce Co. and Raybon Tomato
"The wholesalers are really the heart and soul of our market," he said, noting they did not want to go to Richland County by I-77. "Those wholesalers said to me, 'We are not going there.' That was a very trying time."
Source - http://thetandd.com
