- 1995 Shaping Up As Another Disastrous Year For Farmers;
-- Administration Responds Quickly To Disaster;
- Farmers Seek Long-Term Disaster Protection: Improved Farm
Income
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1995 SHAPING UP AS ANOTHER DISASTROUS YEAR FOR FARMERS
Family farmers, many of whom have not yet financially recovered
from the Great Flood in 1993, are expecting a repeat disaster this
year unless the skies turn warm and dry for the next couple of
months. Constant rain has made it impossible for many farmers to
enter their soggy, and in some places, flooded fields to plant crops
and graze livestock. Those farmers who did manage to get seeds in
the ground now face losing their crops to rot and disease because of
excess moisture. Unlike the Great Flood in 1993, however, this yearUs
wet weather is not confined to the Midwest region. Farmers in
California, Iowa, Missouri, the Dakotas, Georgia and Texas are all
experiencing heavy rainfall and cold temperatures. FARM AID has
been tracking the effects of this spring's storms. We've been talking
with farmers from affected states who are struggling to stay on their
land in the face of this year's potential disaster.
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PLANTING, YIELD OUTLOOK WEAKENS DAILY: FARMERS SHARE
THEIR STORIES
Corn is normally 100 percent planted by the first week in June.
However, in southern Iowa and into northern Missouri, where poor
weather has been particularly acute, only 60 to 70 percent of
farmers' corn crops have been planted. Nationwide 90 percent of
farmers' corn is in the ground, but crop analysts predict yields will
be reduced by 10 percent or more because seed was planted too late
this season.
In Iowa, Phyllis Smith, who farms corn, beans and oats with her
husband, said many of her neighbors have given up on corn planting.
"They've switched to beans because its too late to plant corn," Smith
says. "But even those planting beans are going into wet fields with
their machinery -- this compacts the ground and reduces crop
yields."
Sed.
"We haven't planted any of our beans," says Joyce Perry who raises
hogs and grows grain in Missouri -- one of the states hardest hit by
rains in 1993 and again this year. "We haven't even tilled the
ground yet because it's been so wet." Perry says her winter wheat
crop, planted last fall, is not maturing either. "It's not doing well at
all -- and most of the local crop analysts suspect the test weight on
our wheat will be very light." Reduced test weight means lower
prices for farmers.
Spring wheat planting did reach 96 percent, however only 72
percent of the crop has emerged from the ground in the Dakotas,
compared to normal seedling rates of 99 percent for this time of the
year.
Sharon Wieseler, who farms 800 acres with her family in South
Dakota, suffered major planting delays. In fact, the Wieseler's were
hit by so much snow and rain this spring that they were unable to
get their spring wheat and barley crops in the ground. "We'll survive
financially, though, because I work off the farm. We learned a while
back that you just can't make it on farm income alone," Wieseler
says.
In the south, where drought conditions have reduced yields and
withered crops over the past few years, some cotton growers this
year are being forced to replant their crops because of heavy hail
and rain damage. Bennie Pope, a cotton farmer in Lubbock, Texas
lost most of his crop in a recent hail storm. "We replanted in June,
but because the second crop was put in so late we are in danger of
losing it this fall if we have an early frost or wet weather," Pope says.
Also out west, in California, ranchers like Gail Lennon are struggling
to provide feed for their livestock. "It rained so hard one night that
when we woke up our cows were on an island. We saved our cows,
but the rain ruined our alfalfa crop. It's been under water for two
weeks," says Lennon who runs a small cattle, cow and forage
operation in northeastern California.
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SLOWED BARGE TRAFFIC LOWERS PRICES
FOR FARMERS THIS SEASON
This year's wet weather has also had an impact of farm prices.
Despite soaring futures prices for corn, wheat and beans, farmers
living along the Mississippi River near St. Louis have seen their crop
prices drop over recent weeks as a result of closed barge traffic. On
May 19, flooding along the Mississippi south of Iowa forced the
Army Corps of Engineers to close the river to barge traffic for the
second time in three years. Grain terminals with no economic
alternative to sending grain down the Mississippi have lowered their
bids for corn and soybeans or stopped buying the grain from farmers
altogether. Other large grain merchants who have switched from
using barge transport to relatively expensive rail transport, are
discounting corn and soybean prices for farmers to make up for the
higher freight cost.
The rivers are not scheduled to reopen to barge traffic until after the
water has dropped by at least one foot and the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers in St. Louis has sent Rtest towsS of barges to gauge their
impact on watersoaked levees. As of June 6, river levels remained
well above the Rflood stage.S
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ADMINISTRATION RESPONDS QUICKLY TO DISASTER
The Clinton administration responded quickly to this yearUs disaster,
announcing farm program and crop insurance changes to aid some
producers. The new program changes include:
-Allowing non-program crops planted on failed or prevented-
planting acreage to be eligible for price support loans;
-Granting producers more time to file notice of crop loss for
insurance purposes;
-Modifying haying and grazing rules to accommodate hay and
pasture shortages;
-Extending the date for reporting planted acreage in the affected
states.
Although farmers participating in federal programs are required to
purchase crop insurance, many could only afford the minimum
premium and consequently, only the minimum crop coverage. In
addition, those farmers who carried federal crop insurance in 1993
and collected, will receive only limited coverage this year should
they need to collect again. Insurance is paid out to farmers as a
percentage of their 10-year average crop yield. If a farmer
registered a zero crop yield in 1993, for example, this brings down
his/her 10-year yield average, significantly reducing the amount of
bushels on which he/she can collect for insurance.
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FARMERS SEEK LONG-TERM DISASTER PROTECTION : IMPROVED
FARM INCOME
It's clear that farmers will need more than direct federal assistance
to survive another tumultuous year. "If farmers can't make it in a
good year, I don't know how we're supposed to make it through a
bad year like this," says Texas farmer Bennie Pope.
Family farmers entered the year in weak financial condition, due to a
poor crop year in 1993, weak commodity prices in 1994 and surging
input prices in 1995. RWe donUt know if these guys can recover a
second time,S said David Pomerenke, acting executive director of the
Consolidated Farm Service Agency in May. Since 1993, the United
States has lost over 50,000 farmers. The only way most farmers that
we spoke with will be able to survive this year is because one or
more members of their family work off the farm.
Farmers need permanent solutions that:
-Raise farm income;
-Allow families to devote their full time to production; and
-Minimize the economic affects of future disasters.
"We should be retired by now," says Iowa farmer Phyllis Smith. "But
we can't. We're unable to pay off our debt because of low grain
prices and crop years like 1993, 1994 and now 1995."
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Next Edition of FARM AID NEWS: "A Look At Who's Gobbling Up
America's Food Dollar."
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We welcome comments and suggestions: contact Harry Smith at
FARM AID, (617) 354-2922. Fax: (617) 354-6992. Email:
farmaid@igc.apc.org. We encourage the reproduction of
FARM AID NEWS. Produced by The Institute for Agriculture and
Trade Policy (IATP) for FARM AID. Editors: Gigi DiGiacomo and
Harry Smith. For information on other agriculture bulletins, contact
IATP: (612) 379-5980. Fax: (612) 379-5982. Email: iatp@iatp.org.
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