ATHENS, Ohio — The United States Department of Agriculture drought relief program has been both a savior and disappointment for Athens County farmers.
On Sept. 10, the USDA announced that it would offer financial assistance — in the form of low-interest loans and natural disaster funds — to farmers affected by the drought. The assistance is available to a wide range of agriculture, with specific programs for orchardists, livestock, beekeepers and crop growers.
“We want to make sure that we’re offering all of our farmers the different programs they might need assistance from while they are going through the drought,” USDA Public Relations and Outreach Specialist Christina Cooley said.
The USDA’s website lists six general disaster relief programs, three of which focus on livestock. Farmers can be compensated for the loss of animals killed by weather, predation or loss of grazing land through drought or wildfire. There’s also a catch-all emergency livestock assistance program.
Getting those funds requires farmers to have good records of the number of animals, acres of grazing land and actual costs incurred, Cooley said.
“If the drought continues or the drought worsens and farmers continue to haul feed and water, they need to keep those records so we can continue to pay them,” she said.
CJ Morgan, who runs MoSo Farm with his wife, applied for funds from the USDA’s Livestock Forage Disaster Program administered by the Farm Service Agency.
“It was pretty easy because our farm was already registered with the Farm Service Agency,” Morgan said. “They gave us money on a per head basis, on how many animals we had during the drought.”
Morgan said that the farm will get around $3,000. Morgan plans to use most of that money to pay for extra hay, as he already had to purchase 70 extra bales.
“We had to truck hay in from about 200 miles away,” Morgan said. “With trucking costs and with the price of the hay, there’s probably over $2,000 dollars of hay in the barn.”
Crop growers tighten their belts
USDA programs for crop growers, on the other hand, do not provide compensation for losses. Instead, crop growers can apply for low-interest loans and the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance program for crops that aren’t normally covered by crop insurance.
Standard crop insurance through the Federal Crop Insurance Program covers commonly grown crops such as corn, cotton, barely, potatoes, oranges, soybeans and more.
Crops covered only by the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance program include:
- Crops planted for livestock consumption.
- Certain specialty crops, such as lettuce, watermelon and squash.
- Crops grown for food not already covered by insurance.
- Value loss crops, such as aquaculture, Christmas trees, and ornamental nursery and turf-grass sod.
- Crops grown in a controlled environment such as mushrooms and floriculture.
In either case, however, farmers needed to buy insurance last year to use it now.
“You have to buy [the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance program] in advance, it’s not cheap and it requires tons of record keeping,” said Adam Blaney of Blaney Family Farm in Albany.
Blaney grows a variety of vegetables, including cabbage, tomatoes, kale, radishes and turnips. He said that crop insurance plans are more difficult to administer for specialty growers like him.
“[Recordkeeping]’s easier to do if you grow corn, grow a hundred acres of corn and average out to 15 bushels of corn per acre. It’s easy to figure that stuff out,” he said. “It’s not as easy when you’re growing in square feet, not acres.”
Blaney’s primary crop is lettuce, which is between 90% and 99% water. Blaney estimated that his water bill has gone up by roughly 70% since the drought began.
“Basically, in the mornings I get up and turn water on somewhere to water crops,” he said. “I have a timer on my phone that goes off every hour which prompts me to move it somewhere else. It’s like turning your faucet on in the morning and letting it run all day.”
The expense has Blaney questioning his future plantings.
“It has prompted serious conversations about whether it’s worth it to try and grow salad in the summer,” Blaney said. “The amount of time, effort and manpower we have to put into making sure it grows, I don’t know if we broke even. We haven’t done the numbers yet, but I’m guessing it’s pretty close.”
The drought’s impact goes beyond water bills and crop loss, though: Blaney is concerned about its effect on the mental wellbeing of farmers, who have higher rates of suicide, depression and anxiety than the general population.
“I hope people are aware of the impact, it’s not just the physical toll or bank account,” Blaney said. “But the stress and mental health of America’s farmers are particularly bad when it comes to this kind of stuff. I hope people realize what kind of stress is involved in trying to raise a family while being a farmer.”
Artisan growers lose tourism and product
Artisan growers who specialize in specialty goods such as wine and mead have been hit especially hard by the drought. Paul Freedman, owner of Dutch Creek Winery, said that he has lost at least three bee colonies to the drought,
“We have lost colonies to what we suppose is drought-related stress,” Freedman said. “Honey bees do actually need to drink. They drink out of ponds and still areas of rivers. When those all dried up, that took the honey bees’ water away.”
While the loss of bee hives certainly hurt production, the impact of the drought on Dutch Creek’s business was much more severe. Freedman estimated that business is down by about 15% as a result of the weather.
“We can’t simply respond by raising our prices,” Freedman said. “We’re price constrained by virtue of being a rural business in Appalachia. We want people to think of us as the local watering hole and we’re very price conscious because of that.”
Instead, Freedman and his wife have cut down on shifts for staff at the winery. Previously, two staff members worked Thursday through Sunday. Most shifts are now down to a single staff member; only Saturdays are fully staffed. Freedman and his wife are picking up the slack themselves.
“We are gonna ride it out and hope next year is better. We really don’t have a choice,” Freedman said.
He doesn’t plan to apply for the drought relief funds.
The USDA is aware that the drought relief program isn’t perfect, Cooley said, acknowledging that even those farmers that do take full advantage of them won’t be fully compensated for their losses.
“A lot of these programs can help farmers weather the storm,” Cooley said. “But I’m not going to lie, these programs won’t make an individual 100% whole.”
