Southeast (U.S.)

From Omaha to Georgia: Inside the Farm Machinery Reshoring Boom

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 19:38:03 GMT

After releasing our “Where Farm Equipment Is Made” 2025 update in February , we circled back with farm equipment manufacturers to get a read on how tariffs will affect where machines are made.

Many companies across a wide range of industries are considering or even moving forward with plans to reshore production from overseas back into the United States. We’ve learned this process involves long-term, strategic investments in new facilities and/or expanding factories already established here in the States.

Although each manufacturer shared differing visions for how, when and where it plans to build out additional manufacturing capabilities in the years ahead, a common theme did emerge: farm equipment builders are investing big dollars into reshoring, and many have been for quite some time now.

Let’s hear what the machinery companies are planning:

AGCO Corp.

(AGCO Corp.)

The Duluth, Ga.-based equipment manufacturer says its dedication to American farmers and its own strategic investment plans are “key drivers of our overall growth strategy,” according to an AGCO spokesperson.

The rest of the statement from AGCO, which builds the Fendt and Massey Ferguson equipment brands along with its own AGCO machines, regarding U.S. expansion plans can be found below:

Since 2020, we have invested just under $3 billion in the U.S. across new and expanded manufacturing facilities, product innovations and the largest ag tech deal in the history of the industry. Our commitment has extended across our various brands, locations and Research & Development (R&D) efforts, including the notable 2024 joint venture establishing Colorado-based PTx Trimble, the inauguration of Fendt Lodge – the North American headquarters of Fendt – in Minnesota, a new precision ag production facility in Illinois, modernization of systems and technologies in one of our Kansas plants, and U.S.-based R&D for new sprayer and planter technology.

These investments, AGCO says, will not only enhance production at its U.S. facilities for years to come, but also ensure AGCO remains at the forefront of ag innovation around the world.

Claas

(Matthew J. Grassi)

Claas is still a somewhat fresh face to the North American farm equipment market, but the company has deep roots in Europe. It was founded over 100 years ago in a small German farming town, and today the company has global headquarters in Harsewinkel, Germany.

But you may not be aware that Claas has also built a significant manufacturing operation in America’s heartland. The company opened its Lexion combine production campus, located just south of downtown Omaha, Neb., in 1997. This year marks 10,000 Lexion combines rolling off the main production line inside the 120,000 sq. ft. facility.

(Photos: John Deere, Matthew J. Grassi, AGCO, Kubota)

Claas has significant expansion plans in place for its Omaha campus, including doubling its overall production footprint for the main manufacturing building as well as adding a new training and apprenticeship building.

Here is the statement Matthias Ristow, president & managing director of business administration – Claas Omaha, shared regarding the company’s expansion plans:

Claas is investing significantly in its production hub in the United States, and not only recently. Over the last five years, we have added to our production facility to provide a better location for our rework and reconfiguration areas, as well as a dedicated work area for our quality control department for the pre-delivery inspections each machine must go through before being shipped. This is part of our comprehensive quality assurance program.

We also have built a new service academy where we train all the technicians from our U.S. dealer network (we have a similar location in Canada) so we can keep their skills up to date and make sure they have the proper certifications to work on our machines. Technology updates and changes are trained there as well.

Furthermore, our new service academy houses our apprenticeship program where we train the future assembly technicians in a three-year rigorous training program, managed by the German Chamber of Commerce. The program has several advantages. Technicians receive a regular paycheck (“earn while you learn”), receive an associate’s degree from a community college we partner with, receive a certificate from the German Chamber and have a job when they graduate from the program debt free.

Farm Journal recently had the opportunity to tour Claas’ Omaha operation, where we learned the manufacturer is also expanding its partnerships with domestic material and component manufacturers. For example, it recently began working with a finished parts supplier local to Nebraska to fabricate the grain spout for each Lexion combine.

CNH Industrial (Case IH and New Holland)

(CNH Industrial)

Although short on specifics, CNH Industrial (Racine, Wisc.) confirms it plans to “continue to expand our footprint through capital investments in our U.S. facilities, partnerships with local suppliers and programs that strengthen the communities where we live and work.”

CNH adds it currently employs more than 9,000 people across 17 U.S. states, with 14 manufacturing facilities and 22 R&D centers active throughout North America.

And approximately 70% of the components used in CNH Industrial’s U.S. plants are sourced from domestic suppliers while 95% its steel is purchased from U.S.-based mills. It says this approach to domestic material sourcing supports thousands of suppliers’ jobs and reinforces its investment in American-made quality.

John Deere

(John Deere)

The farm equipment manufacturer with global headquarters in Moline, Ill., was first to share its future investment plans with Farm Journal. Back in May, the company announced a 10-year, $20 billion outlay plan for its U.S. production base. This year alone, Deere says it will pour $100 million into its U.S. operations.

John Deere says this initiative includes:

A 120,000 sq. ft. expansion of the company’s remanufacturing facility in Missouri.
Construction of a new excavator factory in Kernersville, N.C.
Expansion of its Greeneville, Tenn., turf equipment factory.
New assembly lines for 9RX high-horsepower tractor production in Waterloo, Iowa.

John Deere plans to invest a total of $22.5 billion into its U.S. manufacturing network once the 10-year project is complete.

Kubota North America

(Kubota North America)

Kubota Tractor Corporation (KTC) established its North America headquarters in Grapevine, TX., in 2017. The Japanese equipment manufacturer shared the following statement regarding U.S. expansion plans.

North America is critical for Kubota, and the U.S. is our largest market. We firmly believe in local production for local consumption and have made more than $1 billion in U.S. infrastructure investments in the last couple years to meet the growing needs of our dealers and customers. For example, we recently announced the opening of a new loader facility in Gainesville, Ga., (invested $190 million), a new Western Distribution Center in California (invested $72 million), and an R&D facility (invested $100 million) that’s also in Georgia. We have other network investment announcements in the works, and we plan to continue to invest over the next five to 10 years as we respond to market demands. Today, we are more than 7,000 American workers strong who market and sell, and fabricate, weld and assemble equipment with domestic and global parts.

Want to learn more about where your favorite farm machines are made? Check out “From the Factory to Your Fields: Where Farm Equipment Is Made”.

Your Next Read: The 20 Embarrassing Problems that Make Your Farm Truck Unique

Record Prevent Plant Acres Cause Devastation for Southern Farmers

Fri, 30 May 2025 19:11:25 GMT

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.

Franklin Fogleman, Arkansas

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.

Robert Agostinelli, Mississippi

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.

Andy Graves, Mississippi

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.

Robert Agostinelli, Mississippi

Your Next Read: Cotton Farmers Describe Somber Situation: ‘We’ve Gone Beyond Losing Money to Now Losing the Farm’

Another Sign of Trouble in the Ag Economy: Farm Bankruptcies Are on the Rise

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 18:35:59 GMT

It’s no secret there’s trouble in the ag economy. As AgWeb reported in March , the Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor found 62% of ag economists think the row crop side of agriculture is currently in a recession, and 85% think the situation will accelerate consolidation on farms and among agribusinesses. A new report from Bloomberg Law shows family farm bankruptcies are also on the rise.

Bloomberg Law’s Alex Wolf and Skye Witley recently reported that family farm bankruptcies had already increased by 55% last year compared to 2023. And there’s no sign of that slowing down, as Wolf and Witley report bankruptcies are trending even higher this year. That’s as farmers continue to grapple with depressed agricultural commodity prices and high input costs.

Farm bankruptcies are on the rise in the U.S.

(Bloomberg)

“And while much of the industrywide distress predates his second stint in the White House, (President Donald) Trump has quickly nudged more farmers closer to the brink of going under and created turbulence for producers trying to make ends meet,” Wolf and Witley reported in the Bloomberg Law story. “Unpredictable tariffs, immigration overhauls, federal program cuts and frozen Agriculture Department funding are now part of the discussions farmers are having as they seek financial help.”

The report shows the last time farm bankruptcy filings soared was in 2019, which was the height of the previous trade war with China. The previous Trump administration sent farmers more than $20 billion in Market Facilitation Program payments (MFP) to help cover export losses.

Following that financial aid to farmers, the report shows family farm bankruptcies, filed under Chapter 12 of the U.S. bankruptcy code, declined each year until 2024.

According to court records, the number of new cases in 2024 jumped to 216 from a near 20-year low of 139. The report also shows those filings have continued to speed up this year, with 82 cases filed over the first three months of 2025, which is nearly double the figure for the same period a year ago.

$10 Billion in ECAP Money to Farmers

More help is on the way, if not already on farm. That’s because the American Relief Act of 2025, which was passed by Congress late last year, authorized the $10 billion for ECAP payments to help offset losses growers incurred during the 2024 crop year. Those payments are being dispersed now, and farmers have until August to sign up.

According to Joe Glauber, former USDA chief economist and a current emeritus fellow with the International Food Policy Research Institute, direct payments have helped farmers. But the threat of farm bankruptcies, and the reality of financial pain if markets don’t improve, is still there

“Remember, we are getting a ton of money put into the sector this year from the bill that was passed by Congress in December,” Glauber told “AgriTalk’s” Chip Flory. “So that’s $31 billion coming in with $10 billion of that going out to farmers as direct income support to offset low margins. So, I don’t think we’ll see a lot of farms going out of business. But certainly, if these short, tight margins persist for a long time, then that’s going to affect people.”

Rural Bankers Show Concern

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the number of farm loans at risk of defaulting is the highest it’s been since 2020 as demand for non-real-estate farm loans has surged while repayment rates dropped. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago serves the Seventh Federal Reserve District , which includes Iowa, and most of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Ag lenders are also concerned. The most recent Rural Mainstreet Index (RMI) shows for the 19^th time in the past 20 months, the RMI sank below the 50.0 growth reading in April. This specific index surveys bank CEOs in rural areas of a 10-state region dependent on agriculture and/or energy.

While tariffs and Trump’s focus on trade are causing uncertainty, Ernie Goss, MacAllister chair in regional economics at Creighton University, says ag lenders are actually supportive of Trump’s tough stance on trade.

“The economic outlook for 2025 farm income remains weak, according to bank CEOs. Despite the negative fallout from tariffs, 75% of bankers support the tariffs on China, and 79.2% back the 90-day pause on other tariffs,” Goss told “AgriTalk’s” Chip Flory. “I’m an economist and we economists, we’re not very keen on tariffs and trade restrictions. Nonetheless, the bankers, three out of the four bankers are supportive of what the president’s doing there, and I would argue that the farmers are on the president’s side as well.”

The RMI also found rural bankers remain pessimistic about economic growth for their area over the next six months. The April confidence index increased to a weak 36.0 from March’s 30.4.

“Weak grain prices and negative farm cash flows, combined with downturns in farm equipment sales over the past several months, pushed banker confidence lower,” Goss said.

Cotton Hit Especially Hard

Cotton farmers are especially feeling the pain with younger farmers already having difficulty getting financed for this year. Cheap cotton prices and dwindling demand are just part of the problem. Input costs have climbed, and there’s no safety net to be found from a new farm bill. One Georgia farmer told Farm Journal that the current farm bill is irrelevant and worthless, and if a new one doesn’t get passed this year, the cotton industry is doomed.

“We’re going to plant cotton and don’t even have a clue if we’re going to get our money back,” says Franz Rowland, who grows cotton in Boston, Ga. “There’s no farm bill to support us, and the reference price is so low that it’s not anything that we can depend on. So, we’re going to put several million dollars in the ground and don’t even know if we’re going to get it back.”

As president and CEO of National Cotton Council (NCC), Gary Adams sees and hears the somber situation for U.S. cotton farmers from coast to coast. Adams says the outlook for 2025 is even worse than 2024.

“We’ve gone beyond just losing money now that we’re to the point of losing the farm,” he says. “Unfortunately, where the industry is, that’s what it looks like as we’re going into 2025.”

Darren Hudson is the Larry Combest endowed chair for agricultural competitiveness and director of the International Center for Agricultural Competitiveness at Texas Tech University. Hudson focuses on cotton, and on “AgriTalk” this week, he described why cotton farmers, and the entire cotton industry, is feeling the pinch.

“Cotton is fairly input intensive anyway, and so urea, nitrogen costs, all these chemical costs, they’re facing those just like every other farmer out there, but we’ve had three consecutive really bad moisture years,” Hudson told “AgriTalk.” “So, we have a long way to go to get back to what you think of as normal growing conditions.”

Hudson says three consecutive years of declining production due to drought isn’t just a problem for producers, it’s also the cotton infrastructure that relies on that crop.

“We’ve had three years, you know, that processing infrastructure all that stuff is strained and disappearing, and it’s getting harder and harder to farm as a cotton farmer out here,” says Hudson, who’s based in Lubock, Texas. “We’re not unusual compared to everybody else. We don’t want to sing a sad story, but I think all of ag is in a squeeze at this moment with [commodity] prices versus inputs.”

Is the Ag Industry Ripe for Consolidation?

Another reality for U.S. agriculture, while the majority of farms in the U.S. are small family farms, that sector doesn’t represent the majority of farm production today.

USDA ERS data shows while 88% of U.S. farms are considered “small family farms,” those farms only represent18.7% of the total U.S. value of farm production.

(Ben Brown, University of Missouri )

USDA ERS data shows while 88% of U.S. farms are considered “small family farms,” those farms only represent 18.7% of the total U.S. value of farm production.

On the other hand, while 3.4% of U.S. farms are “large-scale family farms,” that sector represents 51.8% of the total value of U.S. farm production.

Trade Associations Urge Biden Administration To Act Now To End Port Strike

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 18:11:32 GMT

A coalition of over 270 local, state and federal trade associations have signed a letter urging President Biden and his administration to use all of its authorities to end the port strike, get the ports open and get the parties back to the negotiating table.

Click here to read the full letter.

The associations involved represent:

American manufacturers
Farmers and agribusinesses
Wholesalers
Retailers
Restaurants
Importers
Exporters
Distributors
Transportation and logistics providers
Additional supply chain stakeholders

The Ag Retailers Association (ARA) is among the groups who sent the letter and is encouraging members to let them know how the strike will impact their businesses.

Background:
A port strike along the East and Gulf coasts began on Oct. 1 and will halt the flow of a wide range of goods, potentially leading to shortages and higher costs. According to an estimate from the Anderson Economic Group, a one week strike would cost the U.S. economy about $2.1 billion.

Your Next Read: East and Gulf Coast Dockworkers Now on Strike Over Wage Demands, Halting Key U.S. Cargo Shipments

U.S. Southeast Faces Daunting Cleanup from Helene as Death Toll Rises

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 14:34:21 GMT

Authorities across the southeastern U.S. faced the daunting task on Saturday of cleaning up from Hurricane Helene, one of the most powerful and perhaps costliest storms to hit the country, as the death toll continued to rise.

At least 47 deaths were reported by early Saturday, and officials feared still more bodies would be discovered across several states.

Damage estimates across the storm’s rampage range between $95 billion and $110 billion, potentially making this one of the most expensive storms in modern U.S. history, said Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist of AccuWeather, a commercial forecasting company.

Downgraded late on Friday to a post-tropical cyclone, the remnants of Helene continued to produce heavy rains across several states, sparking massive flooding that threatened to cause dam failures that could inundate entire towns.

“The devastation we’re witnessing in Hurricane Helene’s wake has been overwhelming,” President Joe Biden said on Saturday. “Jill and I continue to pray for all of those who have lost loved ones and for everyone impacted by this storm.”

Biden was briefed about the loss of life and storm’s impact
on multiple states by Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Liz Sherwood-Randall, the White House’s homeland security adviser, the White House said.

The president directed them to continue to focus on speeding up support to storm survivors and accelerating recovery efforts, including the immediate deployment of additional search and rescue teams into North Carolina, it added.

At least 3 million customers remained without power on Saturday afternoon across five states, with authorities warning it could be several days before services were fully restored.

The worst outages were in South Carolina with more than 1
million homes and businesses without power, and Georgia where 750,000 were without power.

Some of the worst rains hit western North Carolina, which
saw almost 30 inches (76 cm) fall on Mount Mitchell in Yancey County, the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center reported.

Atlanta was hit with 13 inches of rain, and farmers in South
Georgia were assessing the damage to the state’s $1 billion
cotton crop and $400 million pecan crop now in harvest season.

Before moving north through Georgia and into Tennessee and the Carolinas, Helene hit Florida’s Big Bend region as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Thursday night, packing 140 mph (225 kph) winds. It left behind a chaotic landscape of overturned boats in harbors, felled trees, submerged cars and flooded streets.

Police and firefighters carried out thousands of water rescues throughout the affected states on Friday.

More than 50 people were rescued from the roof of a hospital in Unicoi County, Tennessee, about 120 miles (193 km) northeast of Knoxville, state officials said, after flood waters swamped the rural community.

‘CHIMNEY ROCK IS GONE’

The NWS issued flash flood warnings overnight for a swath of eastern Tennessee covering 100,000 residents, warning them to seek higher ground. The Nolichucky Dam in Tennessee’s Greene County was on the brink of failure on Saturday, officials reported, adding that a breach could occur at any time.

In western North Carolina, Rutherford County emergency officials warned residents near the Lake Lure Dam that it might fail, although they said late on Friday that did not appear imminent.

Multiple people in and around Chimney Rock, N.C., described the village’s downtown as washed out, with images online showing inches of mud and sediment, uprooted trees and snapped telephone poles and buildings turned into debris.

“All right folks, listen up, Chimney Rock is gone, Flowering Bridge is gone,” somebody known as Touristpov posted on TikTok, showing videos of the destruction. “I don’t know what they’ll do to get us out of here.”

In nearby Buncombe County, landslides forced Interstate Highways 40 and 26 to close and parts of them were washed out, the county said on X.

Mountain communities such as Boone and Burnsville, N.C., were cut off as highways were clogged with debris or washed out, said Rebecca Newton, who was scrambling to find anyone with cell service in the area who could check on her family home near Mount Mitchell.

“Towns are totally cut off,” she said after spending her morning making dozens of calls to friends in the area. “They’re using helicopters to get people out of Boone and Asheville.”

“Spruce Pine is gone, nothing but rooftops poking out of water,” she said of the mountain community about 50 miles northeast of Asheville.

Newton said a friend told her she had watched houses in her neighborhood slide one at a time into a river near Boone.

“It’s unreal,” she said.

The Burnsville Hub Facebook page is replete with people desperate to find anyone to check on relatives and friends cut off from telephone service.

One poster, Rachel Richmond, wrote, “I need any route that will get me as close as I can. I will walk the rest of the way. I need to get to my parents.”

WAKING TO DISASTER

The extent of the damage in Florida began emerging after daybreak on Friday.

In coastal Steinhatchee, a storm surge - a wall of seawater pushed ashore by winds - of eight to 10 feet (2.4-3 meters) moved mobile homes, the weather service said. In Treasure Island, a barrier island community in Pinellas County, boats were grounded in front yards.

The city of Tampa posted on X that emergency personnel had completed 78 water rescues of residents and that many roads were impassable because of flooding. The Pasco County sheriff’s office rescued more than 65 people.

A total of 11 people died in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis said on Saturday, speaking in Perry, Fla., which saw 15-foot storm surges, larger than those seen in hurricanes in recent years.

“If you look around here, you can see that some homes are just rubble,” he said. “This stuff comes in, it’s fierce and it’s just unstoppable.”

FEMA’s Criswell joined DeSantis on a tour of storm-damaged areas of the state. She will travel to Georgia on Sunday and North Carolina on Monday, the White House said.

“I just want to say on behalf of the president that we extend our deepest sympathies for those families that have lost loved ones,” Criswell said.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s office reported 15 storm-related fatalities in that state, while North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said there had been two deaths there.

At least 19 people died during the storm across South Carolina, the Charleston-based Post and Courier newspaper reported, citing local officials.

(Reporting and writing by Rich McKay; additional reporting by Joseph Ax, Andrew Hay, Brad Brooks, Ismail Shakil and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Daniel Wallis and Paul Simao)

Florida Bus Crash Involving Farm Workers Kills Eight, Leads to DUI Arrest of Driver Involved

Wed, 15 May 2024 20:25:34 GMT

A bus carrying farm laborers in northern Florida collided with a pickup truck on Tuesday and overturned, killing at least eight people and critically injuring eight others, authorities said.

The driver of the pickup truck, Bryan Maclean Howard, was arrested by Florida Highway Patrol troopers on eight counts of manslaughter while driving under the influence, according to a statement from Dave Kerner, executive director of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

In addition to the eight people killed and the eight critically injured, another 37 bus passengers were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Marion County Fire and Rescue said in a statement.

The bus crashed through a fence and overturned after side-swiping a pickup truck and careening off the roadway, Florida Highway Patrol spokesperson Steve Gaskins said in a statement.

The workers were headed to pick melons at Cannon Farms in Dunnellon, a small farming community about an hour’s drive south of Gainesville, when the bus overturned. Marion County Fire and Rescue units were dispatched to the scene just after 6:30 a.m. EDT (1030 GMT), the department said in a Facebook post.

“Today, we faced a tragic incident on West Highway 40 in Ocala with a devastating bus wreck,” wrote Marion Fire Chief James Banta in the post.

Cannon Farms, which operates a commercial farm, said on Facebook that it will be closed on Tuesday “out of respect to the losses and injuries endured early this morning in the accident.”

Cannon said the accident “took place to the Olvera Trucking Harvesting Corp,” but a representative could not be reached immediately to clarify. It is unclear whether Olvera owns the bus or hired the workers.

“Please pray with us for the families and the loved ones involved in this tragic accident,” Cannon said. “We appreciate your understanding at this difficult time.”

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago, Rich McKay in Atlanta, Brad Brooks in Longmont, Colorado, and Dan Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Jonathan Oatis, Aurora Ellis and Deepa Babington)

2024 Land Value Influencers in Your Region

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 21:41:34 GMT

Using a combination of data with boots on the ground experience, Peoples Company has released its fourth annual land values report.

The report shows a three-year period of remarkable land appreciation across the country – something Bruce Sherrick, professor and director of the TIAA Center for Farmland Research at the University of Illinois, says has not been surprising.

“We kind of have a rolling narrative around this and quite often people will remark it’s shocking that farmland almost anticipated inflation or that it’s shocking how well that’s done through time. And I don’t think I’m surprised by that,” he says. “I’m surprised by the accuracy or the degree or the strength of that relationship if anything.”

Annual rates of return have been in the double digits for many regions. In the Northern Plains region specifically, the rate of change in the past year has been especially high.

“In the last year, what we’ve seen is really quite remarkable in the middle of the country,” Sherrick says. “That area has kind of caught up to previous years in the Midwest and Lake states.”

As far as what’s affecting land values in the rest of the country, Peoples Company breaks the data into eight regions.

Pacific West

Annual performance on permanent cropland in the Pacific West and California has suffered in recent years due to a period of low nut prices, tariffs, water challenges and high operating capital.

3 Unique Characteristics of The Permanent Crop Industry

Steve Bruere, president of Peoples Company, anticipates a lot of land transactions in the California market in 2024.

“The amount of irrigated, plantable acreage is shrinking,” he adds. “The acreage left standing will be more valuable over time because of the optionality of what you can grow on it.”

Pacific Northwest

Similar to the Pacific West, the Pacific Northwest has had a period of good returns and offers a lot of optionality of what can be grown on the land. The land values in comparison to its western neighbors, however, are much lower to produce a similar product. That factor – alongside increased access to water resources – allows the region to absorb displaced production from other areas.

“We’re seeing at least that phase of exploration on some of those fresh market crops that may have some compressed acreage and higher water costs to deal with in California looking at the Pacific Northwest, the Columbia River Basin area in particular, as a transition point,” says Dave Muth, Peoples Company’s capital markets managing director.

Southern Plains

The Southern Plains region – Texas and Oklahoma – is experiencing good land value returns despite water issues and labor complications. As these challenges continue, renewable energy projects are becoming key to the region’s profitability.

“Think about it: 20,30, or 40 years ago, when someone was looking to buy a ranch, if transmission lines ran across it, that might take it off the list. Now those same transmission lines are seen as a huge asset,” says Eric O’Keefe, editor of The Land Report. “This emphasis on energy, whether it be in terms of oil and gas or renewables including direct carbon capture, is going to be a complete game changer. I think it’s going to be driving land values in Texas for decades to come.”

Northern Plains

Total returns per year in the Northern Plains over the past three years are averaged at 18.5% - the highest in the country.

“The increase in values have been rather dramatic compared to other parts of the country in the last three-year period. Part of that’s driven by relative yield gains, but it’s also the genetics and the attention to doing genetics for this part of the country by the major seed corn and other seed producers,” Sherrick says. “It has made this a possible competitor for the rest of the country.”

The focus on foreign and corporate ownership in this area also makes it unique in comparison to other regions.

“You see a difference in these types of markets where the farmers aren’t driving values,” Bruere says. “If you take that institutional investor out of the market, it definitely impacts land values and we saw that real time this summer and Kansas and Colorado.”

Delta Market

The Delta Market – Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas – has seen the most stable returns over time when compared to other regions across the country, which makes it attractive to outside investors.

“You don’t get necessarily the same swings that we get in the Midwest in this market. And I’m really bullish – you’ve got plenty of water and you’ve got large fields,” Bruere says. “One of the issues we do struggle with in this market is the tenant pool. You don’t have that same competitive nature for tenants that you’ve gotten Midwest.”

Southeast Market

The Southeast – Florida, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina – has seen moderate returns in comparison to the other regions. The increase in severe weather as well as development in the area leads Sherrick to expect quite a bit of transition in the future.

“I’m actually not worried about land values, hardly at all in this region, for traditional agricultural things,” he says. “Land that gets displaced for a retirement community, a park, golf course or major league baseball facility aren’t reductions in value. They’re just a reduction in the use of it for agriculture.”

Lake States

The Great Lakes region is one Sherrick describes as “still trying to figure out who they’re going to be”.

“There’s great optionality, reasonable acquisition prices and massive increases in land values that have kind of kept the returns high, very correlated with inflation as well,” he says.

Though the yields in the region may not be as high as in the corn belt, the area’s total returns per year over the past three years have averaged 14%.

Corn Belt

Sherrick refers to Illinois and Indiana as indicators and predictors of what’s happening in the agriculture industry.

The region continues to have high appreciation values and above average farm incomes, though transactions have slowed in 2023. The corn belt is anticipated to have continued interest from non-operating investors.

Looking at 2024
Overall, Peoples Company reports the driving factors behind land values are income, interest rates and inflation. As we move into 2024, they expect this will begin to normalize.

Buyer demand is also expected to remain a key player.

“There’s more money that wants to own farmland in there as farmland for sale. That dynamic is not going to change in 2024,” says Bruere. “Right now it feels like interest rates are pulling back a little bit and I think the landmark is going to remain pretty stable in 2024.”

Fear Not the Spider Invasion

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 18:53:20 GMT

Have you heard? There’s a spider invasion expected along the East Coast. However, it comes with a bit of good news: Experts say you don’t need to worry about the bright yellow, blue, black and red Joro spider.

A University of Georgia entomology professor says the spider doesn’t pose a threat to people or animals. Instead, the Joro is one of the few creatures that prey on stink bugs, which are a significant problem for southern crops.

“It constructs a huge web,” says Dr. Nancy Hinkle, professor of entomology at the University of Georgia. “This web, incidentally, collects anything that flies around it, which means they are no longer presenting a threat to our crops.”

Native to Asia, the species mysteriously showed up stateside around 2013. The Joro spider has since thrived, and it’s relatively common to spot in Georgia and the Southeast these days.

A study published in the Royal Entomological Society compares the Joro spider with the golden silk spider, which moved to the Southeast about 160 years ago. The golden silk spider hasn’t been able to spread due to its susceptibility to cold. Despite their similarities, the study found the Joro spider has about double the metabolism, has a 77% higher heart rate and can survive a brief freeze compared with its relative. These findings mean the Joro spider functions better than its relative in a cold environment — and that means it can likely survive outside Southeast.