Senators support farmers’ request for emergency crop funds

By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
    WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe (both R-Maine) sent a letter last Tuesday to the acting administrator of the Farm Services Agency at the U.S. Department of Agriculture urging him to grant northern Maine farmers their requested emergency funding to repair devastating crop damage caused by the recent storms in The County.
    The USDA Farm Services Agency officials in Maine have requested $500,000 through the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) to help the approximately 50 farmers who were affected by the recent storms. The heavy rains and severe weather caused topsoil in many fields to be completely washed away, which dramatically reduces the productive yield of acreage and can potentially reduce the value of that farmland.
    “The potato industry is the backbone of the northern Maine economy supporting hundreds of jobs and many more during the harvest season,” the senators said in the letter. “Maine potato farmers planted nearly 55,000 acres in 2010, with a yield of 29,000 pounds per acre, for a harvest of 1.6 billion pounds with a value of $159.2 million. By providing ECP money to help farmers repair the damage to their fields, the funding could stimulate the economy as farmers hire workers to operate equipment and purchase fuel through local distributors.
    “Given the effects of the recent rain, the damage caused, and the importance of this industry to the local economy, we ask that you give an expedited review to the request for ECP funding for these farmers,” the senators wrote. “Please give this request every consideration.”
    According to Don Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board, some potato growers lost “major portions” of their crop.
    “‘Lost’ is a relative term. We’ve had major damage where topsoil has been lost out of a field, but it’s down at the end of the field or over to the diversion ditch, so it can be brought back up, but it takes money to do that,” he said. “When we say ‘lost,’ it may not be lost forever; it’s lost for this year and there’s a huge cost in bringing it back up. That’s where a lot of that $500,000 comes in; not only fixing the gulleys but also reclaiming the topsoil.”
    The senators’ request, Flannery said, supports the damage that growers sustained prior to Father’s Day weekend.
    “Those were two events that happened over the course of a couple of weeks with the tornadoes that came through and the heavy rains and thundershowers,” he said. “There was some damage to fields — gulley washing — which obviously costs a lot of money to fix. Until we really get at it, the hard numbers are hard to come by.
    “We had another event over Father’s Day weekend that was spotty; it didn’t affect every grower from Fort Kent to Houlton, but in the areas where there was 2.5-4 inches of rain over the weekend, we had substantial damage that wasn’t included in the FSA request for disaster money or that letter of support,” said Flannery. “Some of it went through north of Caribou up in the St. John Valley, some went through the Caribou-Fort Fairfield area, and there was some south of Presque Isle, Mars Hill down through Bridgewater. We got more crop loss out of that, plus some field damage.”
    The Maine FSA’s recommendation does not include crop loss, but rather just damage to fields.
    “If you start talking crop losses, it’s hard to say how much damage there’s been. Obviously we know where there’s a wash that comes through a field, you’ve lost that, but some fields sustained damage that weren’t washes, some fields had water laying that would drown the seed out.
    “Other things we don’t know yet is how much fertilizer has been lost, are the yields going to be down because of fertilizer leeching, etc. We won’t really know that until growers go and harvest their crop,” he said. “If there were low spots in the field where water lays, maybe those will come up and maybe not. It’s too early to tell. We know we’re going to have crop losses, but as far as yield loss, it’s too early to tell.”
    Recognizing that June’s weather patterns “aren’t the norm,” Flannery said growers typically only have to deal with one substantial weather event.
    “I don’t think we’ve had so many weather events consecutively before,” he said. “You may have one of these events in a season, but to get three in a season is totally different.”
    Growers try to have their crops planted by June 10, Flannery said. Ironically, the two tornadoes and subsequent heavy rains fell June 8-9. “You can’t go back and replant,” he said.
    Despite the severe weather conditions and the damaging rains that have fallen to date, Flannery is cautiously optimistic about this year’s crop.
    “I don’t expect a bumper crop year or to set record yields here,” said Flannery, “but the negative impact is just too early to tell. We’ll have to wait and see.”