Farm Journal first reported on the somber situation in the South in April. The financial pain of growing cotton this year created a bleak outlook. At that time, National Cotton Council’s Gary Adams said, “We’ve gone beyond just losing money now that we’re to the point of losing the farm.”
Since then, the situation has grown even worse for farmers in the mid-South. It’s turned into a nightmare, with relentless rains causing devastation and preventing farmers from planting crops this year.
Wettest Spring in 133 Years
“It’s been a challenge,” says Franklin Fogleman, who farms in Marion, Ark., just across the bridge from Memphis, Tenn. “Not only have we been facing economic challenges, but we seem to have faced rain since the 1st of April that is unprecedented.”
The wettest spring in 133 years is wreaking havoc on farm fields, after what farmers thought was a strong and early start to planting.
“We got off to a very good start. The last 10 days or so of March, we had a very good run. We were in a very good position with an early start to the crop. It was dry, crops were coming up and looked good,” he says. “We received a rain around the 1st of April that wound up totaling 13" over a couple of days. We lost a substantial amount of crop at that time to flooding.”
That water stuck around for two to three weeks. They got back in the field just before Easter, before getting rained out again for a month.
“Then we received approximately 5" of rain over four days, and we’re back to having about 1,000 acres of the farm underwater that was planted and had small crops that probably won’t survive,” Fogleman says.
Farming Legacies on the Line
Fogleman’s family has been farming here since 1849. And this year, not only is it the acres he won’t be able to plant, but also the growing number of acres that need to be replanted. He’s running out of time to do both.
“We probably have 1,500 acres of rice, and I’m down to about 200 acres of beans to plant for the first time. I will probably have another 700 — maybe 800 — acres of things to replant again,” he says. “But the thing that’s tricky about that math is the roughly 1,500 acres of rice that we haven’t gotten planted, we won’t plant a crop on.”
Fogleman says once the water finally recedes on those acres — which could take days — it’s too late to plant rice. They’ve looked into planting soybeans instead, but the economics don’t support it.
“The window has basically closed on us in the last couple of days,” he says.
But the thing that’s tricky about that math is the roughly 1,500 acres of rice that we haven’t gotten planted, we won’t plant a crop on.
Farmers Face Historic Prevent Plant Acreage Numbers
That’s the reality for farmers from southern Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi.
“The weather has just been terrible,” says Robert Agostinelli, who farms in Coahoma and Quitman Counties in Mississippi. ”We’ve attempted to plant four or five times, and every time we got rain within 24 hours. So, out of about 2,300 acres of cotton, we got about 550 acres planted. That’s all.”
Just 24% of his crop. That’s all this Mississippi farmer got planted this year, which marks a first.
“This has never happened before. I’ve been farming for 41 years, and this has never happened. It was just unheard of,” he says.
You can hear the devastation in farmers’ voices. What’s even more gut wrenching is Agostinelli took out 60% crop insurance coverage with ECO on top, but the ECO doesn’t cover prevent plant.
“Looking back on it, if we would have thought this was a possibility, we probably would have taken out different insurance or something,” he adds.
This has never happened before. I’ve been farming for 41 years, and this has never happened. It was just unheard of.
That’s the story for farmer after farmer. Crop insurance will help, but it’s not even coming close to making them whole.
“It helps, it’s better than not having it. But the truth is it’s like putting a band-aid somewhere that you need stitches. It’s not enough, it just enough to survive, if that,” Fogleman says.
“Farmers Are Hurting... They’re Hurting Bad”
Andy Graves, a crop consultant in Clarksdale, Miss., adds, “These guys are hurting. They’re hurting bad, and this isn’t what we needed.”
Graves owns Graves Agronomy Service. Even through this rain, he’s up early walking fields and doesn’t like what he sees: flooded out fields, suffocated crops that are barely hanging on and fields overgrown with weeds.
“I don’t know what’s fixing to happen with what’s going on up here right now because it’s as close to disaster as I’ve ever seen on the cotton side, anyway,” Graves says.
We needed a home run, and we’re not going to get it.
Graves is in the middle of cotton country. It’s a big cotton area with seven gins within 30 miles. Even before the wet weather hit, cotton was facing a mountain of challenges, the main one being price.
“It’s not good. It is more of disbelief, honestly,” Graves says. “I get up every day, and I can’t believe this has happened. We’ve had two record crop years the past two years. And most everybody has not shown a profit, so it was bleak. It was a really rough winter trying to talk to some people about what we’re going to do this year. We needed a home run and we’re not going to get it.”
Today, about 65% of the cotton in Graves’ area is planted.
“A big majority of that just went in and got 6" of rain behind it,” Graves says. “I’m hoping for the best, but it’s cold and wet right now. I’ve never seen a spring like this.”
Cotton Isn’t the Only Crop Swamped By Heavy Rains and Low Prices
It’s not just cotton that farmers are battling. Soybeans are also struggling in the ground, and the corn is wind whipped or battered by hail and sand.
“We’ve had everything. It’s a mess,” Graves says.
Even if the rain stops, the other battle for farmers in the area is the weeds that are already too tall to effectively control.
“We’re going to throw everything we can at it and do the best we can to knock it back, but losing dicamba is going to hurt in the soybean crop. A lot of my cotton up here is Enlist cotton, so I still do have the Enlist technology. We can probably clean a lot of this up with combinations of Liberty, Roundup and Enlist, but it’s going to cost a fortune to do this.”
Farmers on the Brink of Going Under
Graves has been a crop consultant for nearly 30 years. He says without any disaster aid or help, he doesn’t know if some of these Mississippi farmers will survive.
“We have some really strong farmers up here, really strong,” Graves says. “They got that way because they farm very efficient, very smart and don’t make any dumb moves. We’ve had two record yields up here with cotton, soybeans and corn the last couple of years, but they’re financial losses. Now the prices are lower this year, and we’re faced with what we got now with weather. So, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Devastation Hits Infrastructure and Industries Farming Supports
The devastation isn’t just impacting farms. It’s the infrastructure and industries farming supports.
“It rolls downhill,” Graves says. “I mean, if they’re out of business, I’m out of the business. We’ve got gins, airports, chemical applicators — we have a community. It’s a tough deal to be looking at right now, and it’s not just here. I’ve talked to some people in Arkansas all the way up to Missouri in the past week. It’s all over the place.”
“This is Worse Than a Drought”
Farmers know how emotionally and mentally challenging it can be to cope with a drought. But with this relentless rain this spring, farmers can’t even get their crops in the ground, and that makes it worse than dealing with drought.
“In our area of the Delta, we have irrigation. So, when it’s dry, we can cure that problem,” Fogleman says. “It can be an expensive solution, but it is a solution that’s better than nothing. When your crops are underwater, when it is too wet to get into fields to fertilize or when it’s too wet get into the fields to spray, there’s really nothing that you can do.”
Agostinelli says for cotton, it was in the red any way he looked at it this year.
“This is the kicker. The price is so low that if we farmed it, we will lose even more money. That’s how bad it is,” he says. “It’s very stressful and if there’s no assistance coming, I can just see a lot of farmers going out this year.”
Fogleman adds, “Farmers are pretty resilient and they have a lot of fight, but I have to admit, as I talk to my friends, as I talk my neighbors, these are trying times and people are feeling the impacts of it.”
This is the kicker. The price is so low that if we farmed it, we will lose even more money. That’s how bad it is. It’s very stressful and if there’s no assistance coming, I can just see a lot of farmers going out this year.
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