Farmers facing crop losses

BALLVILLE TOWNSHIP — For Roger Wise, the fall harvest at his Sandusky County farm can be one of his favorite times of the year.

It's reflected in the slow, final repetitive march of his combine harvester over acres of soybean fields and the swift separation of grain from chaff as Wise's beans are deposited into a collection tank and eventually transferred to a nearby trailer.

At Wise's Ballville Township farm in early October, warmer-than-normal temperatures and clear skies provided a sharp contrast to the constant rain and field flooding that greeted area farmers in May and June.

That record rainfall, particularly in June, disrupted planting for farmers in Sandusky and Ottawa counties and resulted in heavy crop losses and lower yields for some area farmers.

Some parts of Ottawa County received 20 inches of rain in June, with Sandusky County seeing a similar amount of precipitation from the middle of June through the middle of July.

Wise, past president of the Ohio Farmers Union, said his harvest of soybeans has gone well this year, with his corn crop expected to be above average. But he acknowledged that his yields weren't as good as he had hoped.

"I think it all has to do with the water and the weather," Wise said, adding, "For what the year's been, it's been fine."

Ottawa County has a lot tougher soils than Sandusky County, Wise said, and farmers in both counties had to wait for the ground to dry out before they could plant crops after the heavy rains.

"They have their own set of issues, that's for sure," Wise said of Ottawa County farmers.

He said he had heard some specialty crops, including pumpkins, had fared poorly with the waterlogged planting conditions. With the record rainfall in June, it was more difficult for local farmers to apply chemicals, which allowed for weeds to develop around crops in both counties, Wise said.

The National Weather Service reported in July that the region including both counties had experienced its fourth-wettest June in more than 100 years

Sandy Laubacher said her husband, Ron, farms corn, soybeans, wheat and alfalfa on about 1,100 acres in the Oak Harbor area. Her son, Jason, runs Jason's Pumpkin Patch on Salem Carroll Road.

The vast majority of the Laubachers' acreage is in Ottawa County, she said, with a small portion extending into Sandusky County. She said this year's rain, and the hardship it put on local farmers, was comparable to the 2008 season.

"It started out perfect. Then it started raining in June," Laubacher said. "I don't know any farm that hasn't been hurt in some way or the other by the rain."

Her husband wasn't able to plant on about 150 to 200 acres because of the heavy rains, Laubacher said.

The family's pumpkin patch was possibly hit hardest by the wet weather in June.

Laubacher said in 2008, the family was able to plant pumpkins before the heavy rains hit, whereas this year, the Laubachers were not able to get a seed in the ground.

The family planned on devoting 10 acres to its pumpkin patch this spring, but they were forced to purchase pumpkins from wholesalers to meet customer demand, she said.

In August, farmers from Sandusky and Ottawa counties met with Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, in Fremont to talk about the struggles they were facing in the fields because of the earlier heavy rains.

Betsy Anstead, acting executive director for the Sandusky County Farm Service Agency, said at the time county farmers were reporting a 30 percent loss on all crops and a 50 percent loss on fruits and vegetables.

Anstead said there was 16 to 20 inches of rain that fell in the county between June 11 and July 15, with 1,400 acres designated as “prevented planting” because of the weather conditions.

National Weather Service meteorologist Zach Sefcovic told The News-Messenger in July that a rainwater gauge on Ohio 53, just southwest of Fremont, recorded 9.2 inches for June, slightly behind 1924’s total of 9.49, which ranks third for the most rain in the month of June locally.

“The record is 10.56 inches, recorded in 1902. The average rainfall in June is normally 4.02,” Sefcovic said in July.

Sefcovic said the rain came in bunches and that June’s total was particularly notable because most of the rain came during the final two to three weeks of the month.

Dan Polter, a local farmer and Sandusky County commissioner, said at the Jordan meeting that his corn and soybean crops were not doing too poorly this summer, although he acknowledged the wet conditions were generally tough for farmers and worse than the past two years.

“Our vegetables, they don’t like a lot of water. They’re struggling,” Polter said, noting after the meeting that the crop problems boiled down to drainage and how much water remained after heavy rains.

Jodi Bolen, executive director with the Ottawa-Lucas Farm Service Agency, said it had been a tough year for Ottawa County farmers, with 20 inches of rain falling in a month’s time.

Bolen said Ottawa County had 11,000 acres of prevented planting reported by farmers through late September.

"We do know there's some low yields," Bolen said, mentioning corn as one crop that fell into that category.

Bolen said the county's peach crop was hit hard again this year, with crops such as tomatoes and pumpkins suffering the most because of the rainy conditions earlier in the summer.

One bright spot, she said, is that apple farmers reported a pretty good crop this year.

Mike Harder, who farms soybeans, corn, wheat and alfalfa in Oak Harbor, said Thursday that he had not harvested most of his crops yet and expected to be in the field until Thanksgiving.

Harder said his yields were all over the board for crops, with the wet weather putting everything behind in terms of planting this year.

"It is what it is. You can't control Mother Nature," Harder said.

Bolen said hay also was hard to make this year with the earlier, heavy rains.

"You have to cut it first. You need a couple of days to dry it. We just never got that window," Bolen said.

dacarson@gannett.com

419-334-1046

Twitter: @DanielCarson7