The latest report from the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) dated August 1, 2019, does not say anything that the agricultural community in Williams and Fulton Counties did not already know. All that it did was quantify the disaster, and put hard numbers on what has already been a hard growing season.
Williams County farmers wanting to put in corn earlier in the year found the seemingly perpetual rains a roadblock to planting. As a result, the FSA report said that 29,074.32 acres of land across 1,444 surveyed farms in Williams County never saw a corn planter. Soybeans were even worse as 31,298.25 acres went unplanted. The FSA report said that 2,073 Fulton County farms missed out on the planting of a 2019 corn crop to the tune of 48,522.68 unplanted acres, with unplanted bean fields totaling 21,787.676 acres.
These numbers reflect only those fields that were unplanted due to seemingly incessant rainfall during the planting season. The numbers do not reflect failed, or planted and failed acreage.
There is nothing new here; the farmers have been feeling the brunt of this agricultural disaster for months now. Ohio Fifth District Representative, Bob Latta, has been working with the Department of Agriculture to get federal disaster assistance funds flowing into the area, and on the afternoon of August 7, Latta, along with Ohio 82nd House District Representative Steve Riedel and the representatives of several agribusiness companies, came to Stryker on the invitation of Rusty and Sue Goebel to talk with and listen to local farmers on subjects like disaster assistance, foreign trade, tariffs, and the Lake Erie algae bloom.
“My grandfather was born in 1900 and passed away in ‘86,” Mr. Latta said. “My entire life was spent over at that farm, weekends and all the time. I heard my grandfather talk about two weather patterns…that was the winter of ‘18, and the winter of ‘78. We always had a dispute among the younger ones that ‘78 was worse, and I actually did some research…grandpa was right. ‘18 was worse than 78. But he never told us he was never able to get a crop in, or my great uncles, or any of my relatives. So when you look at what’s happening this year, we’ve never seen a situation like this.”
“I represent the largest farm income producing district in Ohio,” Latta continued. “When you look at our corn production, we’re usually in the top 35 to 40, when it comes in total corn production in the country for a congressional district. I can’t tell you how many phone calls I was on with the Undersecretary of Agriculture, Northey, who’s originally from over in Iowa. In the course of our discussion, I tell him how bad things were here. This is also before the declaration was made…through the Department of Agriculture here in Ohio, and the Governor, getting them to moving forward.” The USDA has unofficially declared our area as probably ‘ground zero’ for what they’ve seen.
Mr. Latta had some sobering news as to the effect that the bad weather is going to have on our socioeconomic situation in the not too distant future. “The folks that didn’t grow up on a farm, or have family on a farm, don’t understand what’s going to come. You know, my father in law used to sell for Crow’s. There’s a lot of guys out there that had to return their seed this spring. Then you have the folks that I talked to on the fertilizer side that aren’t selling fertilizer. Then I tell folks that when we get closer to harvest, the folks that are out there that do the combining and picking for other people aren’t going to be employed.”
“And then the folks like when my in-laws would be broke down 11 o’clock at night with a combine. They’ve got to buy parts, but they’re not going to be buying parts because that’s going to be a problem. So this is this is not just a little problem; this is going to be around our entire region. I know what farming is, and what it means to our area, but it’s also important that people that aren’t farming and never had anybody in farming remember that when I was in the State Senate on the Ag Committee, less than 1% of Ohioans were in agricultural production. It’s less than 2% nationally. And so when you think of the people out there, over 99% of Ohioans don’t have to worry about what’s going to happen out here. But I realize it every day, because I know what you all go through.”
Ohio Congressman Steve Riedel, who represents the Ohio 82nd House District, said, “I do want you to know…you probably follow we passed out the state budget about three weeks ago. And part of that state budget there’s $172 million that’s been appropriated to the H2Ohio program, which I think going to be a great program; a great idea on the part of Governor DeWine’s, helping with the cost, helping offset the costs for wetlands and filter strips with nutrient management plans. Definitely a step in the right direction that helps with water quality throughout Ohio, with a focus towards Lake Erie, but through the whole state of Ohio.”
Congressman Latta returned to speak on new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which is still awaiting approval in Congress. “I was at four different meetings earlier today in Wood County, but it was more on the manufacturing side, and how important is to get this thing done. When you think, on what we do with Mexico and Canada in trade, especially when you’re thinking about agricultural products, it’s huge. And we want to make sure we get it done because again, it’s going to affect farmers right off the bat.”
“You know, I wish I could say when we get back that they’ll bring that up, that we can get this thing passed out. We only have really 40 working days left after Labor Day. The other part is that we’re talking about on the tariffs, and I’ve talked to two of the cabinet secretaries personally about this. When you think about for soybeans, China traditionally got 55% of their beans from Brazil, 33% from the United States, which then of course left 12% out there for other countries to make up.”
“One of the things I kept emphasizing and keep emphasizing, they say China…there’s not enough market around the world for them not to go out there and buy U.S. beans. But the thing is, I keep re-emphasizing is, look, we don’t want to lose from the 33% down, we want to stay AT that level and NOT go down. Once you start losing market, it’s harder to get that market back.”
“You look at where we’ve been, especially with China, that from October to June from last year to this year, it was 8.7 million metric tons to China. It was down from 25 million metric tons of the year before. And you know that the money that was put forward, about that $16 billion that was out there. But again, farmers don’t want that, they want the trade end. We all understand this, the Chinese have cheated on trade negotiations. They take trade secrets; they take everything.”
“We do not want to have farmers out there in a situation that you’re losing market share, because again when you look at that, 55 – 35 Brazil vs. United States, we don’t want to lose our percentage market out there to China. When you look at the overall amount of corn that’s planted in this part of the state compared to where we were in years past, its massive. And so this is why I’m trying to do everything I possibly can to make sure that the Department of Agriculture understands what’s happening here, in our part of the country.”
When asked about the issue of water quality, Mr. Latta said, “That’s more on the state side. Back in 2014 when we had the algae bloom, I started the legislation for the Drinking Water Protection Act. We brought everybody in and wanted to have everybody at the table, and we got our legislation passed. It became law that you make sure that you use sound science out there…not just in Lake Erie, but across the country and all bodies of water.”
Congressman Reidel said, “Just to touch on that water quality one more time, as Bob mentioned, it is more state. I guess you might say we’re dialed down on it at the state level.”
“I want to really emphasize this…you have a friend in Governor Mike DeWine. Okay? This is my second General Assembly. My first General Assembly was with Governor Kasich. And now I’m working with Governor DeWine, and there’s a marked difference between the two men.”
“And the General Assembly? You have a lot of friends that are very pro-agriculture in the General Assembly. So we are watching out for you, and we have your back. This water H2Ohio program is fantastic because there’s funds available now to help with these costs, to help defer these costs to put in more wetlands and the water strips. Just real common sense things, but we understand it costs money. So we’re stepping up to help defer those costs. So I do want to emphasize that the current Ohio General Assembly is very pro-Ag, and you have a lot of friends down there, including the governor.
Randy Stuckey of Archbold addressed Congressman Reidel, saying, “In regards to water quality and the passage of LEBOR (the Lake Erie Bill Of Rights), and I try not to get emotional about it. But if you talk to anybody from Soil and Water, or the people supposedly in the know, and the media, we are considered to be 85% of the problem. Now you can go from the Detroit River, Monroe, Oregon, Toledo, Port Clinton, Sandusky, etcetera etcetera. The industrial businesses up and down the Maumee River, new housing…the media or somebody is trying to convince me that I’m 85% of the problem?”
“And then if you go down to Perrysburg, they have signs posted…that say during wet weather, raw sewage comes right from Perrysburg into the Maumee River. How gullible, how stupid are we to accept the fact that farmers and agriculture are going to be the scapegoat for 85% of the problem? There is no way we have 85% of the problem!”
Congressman Reidel replied, “Yeah, I understand what you’re saying. I agree with you all the way. So the City of Toledo, the residents passed that LEBOR. Okay, so that that was done within the city limits of Toledo.”
Mr. Stuckey interjected, “And less than ten percent of the population voted on it.”
“Right,” continued Congressman Reidel. “The good news is in the budget, we just passed about three weeks ago in the state, okay. We nullified that; it’s null and void. LEBOR is null and void. We put a provision in the budget that basically would be exactly what I just said. It’s null and void by state law. So I don’t know what they’re going to do. They’re circling the wagons, talking to their attorneys. But we basically in the state level put a roadblock on LEBOR. It’s not going to go forward. I just want you to know that you have a lot of friends in the General Assembly. They’re looking out for the Ag-business and your well being. And this was a good example with what we just did with LEBOR…we killed it.”
Rusty Goebel noted, “The water issue for us up here is going to be pretty critical, especially for livestock, fertilizer, anything. But Randy, we’re not 85% there’s no doubt. I mean, the city of Toledo thinks they’re putting out 2%. The mayor was just on the news two nights ago and said, ‘Well, we only contribute 2%, and the rest is the farmers. Well, we all know that’s not quite right.”
“Someone had to mention Soil and Water,” said a smiling Bob Short as he came to the front to take the microphone. Bob is the President of the Ohio Federation of Soil and Water Conservation Districts. “I can affirm what Representative Reidel said,” he said. “We have a friend from the State House. Governor DeWine grew up on a farm, he owns a farm, and he understands the farming community.”
“I spent quite a bit of time in Columbus over the last several months. I testified before the House Ag Committee and the Senate Ag Committee to try to make sure that we had adequate funding, that the funding stayed in the budget bill for the Ag community. And on the conservation side, the Clean Water side, the governor has been very generous with the H2Ohio bill that infused a lot of money in for conservation practices. Senate Bill 299 which was introduced last year, that has put in a lot of money for conservation practices.”
“The reality is, in Williams County, there’s a lot of fields that are not planted, and Mother Nature will provide the cover crop. All we have to do is just let them go. However, we don’t want to be fighting marestail as our main crop for the next five years. But the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service), the soil and water districts and the Soil and Water Federation have come up with some programs to promote cover crops on these prevent plant acres. The soil and water districts have several programs where they have a buffer program and a small grains program where guys can apply manure in a timely manner, if they get it incorporated and get a cover crop on it, so we can address some of the people in Toledo.”
Short continued, “I think the biggest problem we have with the masses, the masses that the media feeds…the biggest thing we need to do is educate the people. When they came out with the initial water crisis in Toledo, I mean, it was a perfect storm. It happened on Friday. It affected thousands of people, and by Monday they had it solved.”
“Well, I’ve been do countless numbers of meetings with very, very intelligent people, and with representatives and people in government, people in the in the Ag industry. We probably have the answers, but we have to get everybody talking to each other and going in the same direction. I think that we can probably solve the issue, but it’s going to take a lot of time to do it.”
Timothy can be reached at tim@thevillagereporter.com
