Drought compounds problems caused by freeze

The Warren County agriculture industry has been hit with a double whammy this year. Reeling from the combination punch of a premature blooming season followed quickly by a hard freeze, the agricultural industry didn’t have a chance to regroup before the current drought hit with little precipitation in the forecast.

Dale Beaty and Mark Halcomb of the UT Agriculture Extension Service, along with County Executive John Pelham, appeared on WCPI Public Radio’s Focus program, moderated by Bill Zechman, to discuss these climactic conditions and the potential economic impact on Warren County farmers and nurserymen.

According to local figures gathered at the McMinnville water plant, which is the official weather observatory for the weather service, as of the close of the day on May 28, there had been 2.51 inches of rain, as opposed to 6.5 inches in May of 2006.

Halcomb, the area nursery specialist for the extension service, says the full effects of the early freeze may not be known for several years, but the repercussions will be significant for the nursery industry.

‘I’ve seen a lot of damage, a lot of sad people, a lot of worried people,’ Halcomb said. ‘We don’t quite know the full story yet and we won’t for some time. It’ll be probably the first of next year before we actually do. Some people think we should be able to walk out and know today, but we can’t.’

Halcomb says the drought conditions only add to the existing problems caused by the freeze.

‘Die-back will continue through the heat and drought of the summer,’ Halcomb said, ‘if we have the type of weather that it looks like we’re set up for.’

Though nurseries have been hit hard countywide, Halcomb says some of the smaller, more specialized operations may find it harder to recover from the damage.

‘What’s been hurt perhaps the most is the people that are growing only seedlings and budding,’ Halcomb said. ‘Even with some protection those plants were almost lost across the board.

‘The damage is severe,’ Halcomb continued. ‘The fellow that’s only got 10 acres of seedlings has lost everything. He doesn’t have anything to eat for the next 12 months. It’s a total loss for him. I hope that he can find employment someplace else.’

Halcomb says larger nurseries with more diversity may find it easier to survive, but will still suffer significant losses. Some in the local nursery industry have estimated the economic impact could approach $100 million.

Another concern is the effect on other crops in Warren County, with hay production one of the main concerns, since this crop can have a cumulative effect, raising the price of beef and milk products, especially with the price of corn and other feed products being on the rise.

Some estimate that crop yields may be reduced by as much as 50 percent, which is compounded by the fact that many growers have little hay in reserve.

‘That’s probably the most common yield estimate that I hear from producers in the last week to 10 days,’ Beaty said. ‘That they’ll be making about half of what they did this time last year. This is coming on a year when everyone fed out their hay. Hay was short last year. And we may not have the ability to grow a summer crop. We’re still waiting on that rain for that to start.’

The combination of an already existing shortage of hay and the cut in production this year could result in a major shortage.

‘We’re just putting a short crop in on top of an empty barn right now,’ Beaty said.

Pelham says county government is working on gathering information from local nurseries requested by the state in an effort to obtain federal help, but so far chances look slim.

‘What’s being implied, not said, but what’s being implied is that they’re going to try to come up with some federal aid,’ Pelham said. ‘We realize that’s a long shot, but we’re going to do everything they request. So if it doesn’t happen, and we hope it does, but if it doesn’t, it won’t be because we dropped the ball.’

For the full Focus program tune into WCPI Public Radio, 91.3 FM, May 31 at 1:03 p.m. The originally planned program on the Interact Club has been delayed until the next episode of Focus.