ASHLAND — Pam Haley of West Salem is praying for good weather this year.
The full-time grain and cattle farmer knows her lifestyle comes with uncertainty. There’s even more of that amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has turned life in the United States upside-down since mid-March.
Still, she’d pick farming over gambling. Any day. Yes, even during an unpredictable, international crisis.
“It’s been a tough couple years, but we’ve been lucky,” Haley said, pausing to laugh. “You’ll hear farmers say that. It wasn’t great, but it could have been worse.”
Last spring, the farm operated by Haley, her husband Mike and brother-in-law Brad saw heavy rains. Most of their fields weren’t planted until late June. Some were planted, flooded out and replanted.
The yields weren’t impressive come fall, but the Haleys were hopeful. Next year would be different.
“Farmers are eternal optimists, and in (early) 2020, there was a lot of excitement about a new start. We didn’t think we could do any worse than in 2019. It was the worst in 100 years,” said Ohio Farm Bureau spokesperson and director of media relations, Ty Higgins.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty anyways in farming … But (COVID-19) is one of the biggest unknowns we’ve seen.”
According to the most recent Census of Agriculture, Ashland County produces one percent of the state’s total agricultural sales, That production notably factors into the state’s farming capacity, said Lindsay Shoup, the Ohio Farm Bureau’s organization director for Ashland, Medina, Summit and Wayne counties.
Comparatively, Richland, Knox and Medina Counties each contribute to one percent of Ohio’s agricultural sales; Holmes contributes two percent; and Wayne contributes up to four percent of the state’s total agricultural sales.
A portion of Ohio’s 88 counties, including nearby Summit County, produce less than 1 percent of the total sales statewide.
The state’s farming capacity is impacted by how COVID-19 affects Ashland County farmers, and likewise, each individual Ashland County farmer feels and must adjust to the pandemic’s every regional, statewide, national and even international effect.
When a local grocery store limits how much milk customers can buy because previous shoppers cleared the shelves, an Ashland dairy farmer may have to dump milk.
When a COVID-19 outbreak closes a beef processing plant a state or two — or five away — an Ashland County cattle farmer may be forced to reroute, delay or even cancel shipments and instead feed their ready-for-market cattle for a few weeks longer.
Farmers watched while most U.S. commodity prices dropped drastically from mid-January through late March. During that time, the price of Class III Milk has fallen 26 percent, Class IV milk by 36 percent, live cattle by 25 percent, corn by 14 percent and soybeans by 8 percent.
All farmers are impacted, but grain farmers — who were adversely affected by spring 2019 flooding — now prepare their fields knowing they’ll likely take a loss if the trend continues.
Loren Hulit, of Weller Township in eastern Richland County hopes for a profit, but he’d settle for breaking even.
“All you can do is put the crop in the ground, hope the demand increases over time, and hope the yields are good. You hold your breath and hope for the best,” Hulit said. “We have insurance that helps cover things if needed, but it hardly pays the bills. It’s just risk management.”
The Census of Agriculture, last conducted in 2017, shows Ashland County has 1,122 farms, which account for nearly 60 percent of the county’s total acreage, or 160,698 of 270,688 acres.
They range from micro to massive in size, but most fall between 10 and 179 acres. About 37 percent of Ashland County farms are between 50 and 179 acres in size and an additional 33 percent between 10 and 49 acres.
Twelve percent of farms range between one and nine acres. Another 12 percent are between 180 and 499 acres; five percent are between 500 and 999 acres; and five percent are more than 1,000 acres.
Three quarters of all Ashland County farm land is dedicated to growing crops like corn and soybeans. Yet as a whole, Ashland County farmers bring in more in sales from livestock, poultry and other agricultural products. About 61 percent of the county’s share of sales comes from livestock, poultry and other production, while 39 percent is from crops.
Among the most significant products in Ashland County is milk from cows. Ashland County is ranked number 12 in the state for milk production’s total market value and adjacent Wayne County is number one.
“Ag has been in a down economy for a number of years, especially dairy, and now COVID’ effect on prices is worsening some of that,” she said.
In recent weeks, Ashland County dairy farmers were asked to dump milk or warned that they may have to do so in the coming weeks.
Perrysville dairy farmer Justin Ringler is among the few local farmers to get a heads up. He received a letter recently warning him that he should prepare to possibly dump milk, something he’s never before done at his farm.
“It said they estimate 10 percent of the milk in the county doesn’t have a place to go, and we should be prepared to dump milk here,” Ringler said.
He, his wife Molly and parents-in-law milk approximately 100 cows and plant corn, soybeans and wheat.
As schools and restaurants shut their doors, they cut off a considerable demand for dairy products like butter and cheese, leaving a surplus of liquid milk, which grocery stores were then limiting due to the floods of panicked shoppers in late March.
Further, more milk jugs and labels needed produced for the extra milk, said Higgins of the Ohio Farm Bureau.
Ringler has responded by doing the same thing he does every morning: Waking up and getting to work.
“What do you do on Christmas morning?” he asked and waited for a response.
“Well, for us, on Christmas morning, we do the same thing we do every other morning, and since the shut down, we’ve done the same,” Ringler continued. “We all have to keep going.
“There’s no stopping for 12 hours. It’d be a disaster. If we stopped for two days, it’d all be over.”
For this reason, Higgins urges farmers to take extra precautions. It’s crucial for farmers and everyone along the food supply system to stay healthy, the Ohio Farm Bureau spokesperson said.
Local beef cattle farmers, like Haley of West Salem and Hulit of Weller Township are already seeing firsthand the far-reaching impact of beef processing and packaging plant closures.
Haley’s brother-in-law had nearly arrived at a meat packaging plant in Eastern Pennsylvania with a semi-truck full of cattle when he was contacted and asked to take the cattle to a Michigan plant instead.
The JBS Beef Plant in Souderton, Pennsylvania temporarily closed when a number of employees showed symptoms of COVID-19. The plant’s 70-year-old union steward Enock Benjamin died in early April due to respiratory failure caused by COVID-19.
Hulit has a load of cattle scheduled to go to JBS in Souderton, too. It’s on track for now.
“When they get to the end of the process, they eat more, but they don’t put on weight as quickly, so it’s most expensive to feed them,” Hulit said.
Farmers are efficient, said Haley, who serves on the Ohio Cattlemen’s Association board. They purposefully plan for their cattle to be ready for a certain time of year. Any delays make the business less profitable.
“It’s not a product that can stand here and wait forever. There’s not really an expiration date, but there is when you think of the break-even point and paying bills,” Haley said.
Swine farmers see similar impact with processing plant closures. The plant that Shoup’s family sends pigs to in Logansport, Indiana hasn’t closed, but because of other plant closures throughout the midwest, other shipments were redirected to the plant. The added capacity meant Shoup’s family had to cancel and ultimately reschedule a shipment to the plant for a later date.
If plant closures weren’t enough of a challenge for beef cattle farmers, they additionally must adapt to restaurant closures. High-value cuts from their cattle aren’t selling the same way they did prior to the pandemic.
“We know folks were rushing to the grocery store, and even I was shocked by what wasn’t there, but on the meat side of things, consumers get caught up with the ground beef case being empty,” Haley said. “If you look, the expensive cuts are still there.”
Ground beef doesn’t pay a farmer’s bills.
Higgins says there’s no need to worry about a food shortage. Farmers have the products. There’s no shortage, rather its the logistics that offer the challenges to getting products to stores.
Still, one way or another, those products will get to the shelves, Higgins assured.
“Meat is in the meat case. It may not be the cut you want, but it’s there. And milk is there, but may not be whole or 2 percent like you want,” he said.
Farmers are resilient. They’re tough. They’ve faced challenges before and came out on top, Higgins said.
“We’ll get through this challenge, too,” he said.
Haley can’t help but feel optimistic as she sees the fields turning green.
“In the back of our minds, we’re thinking is it worth it? Can I make a profit?” she said about planting. “But we look on the green side of things. For us, the weather is getting nice. We feel positive.
“We’re surviving and doing the best we can for ourselves and our employees, keeping them safe while at work. And we’ll keep taking it day-by-day.”