By MELISSA HART

Michigan Correspondent

EAST LANSING, Mich. — State Rep. Julie Alexander (R-District 64) and Sen. Kevin Daley (R-District 31) teamed up last week to host a joint listening session on the challenges facing Michigan’s farmers.

Key agricultural stakeholders gathered on August 13 to voice opinions and offer expert testimony in front of a joint session of the House and Senate agriculture committees at the Michigan State University Livestock Pavilion in East Lansing.

This joint hearing developed out of concern for Michigan’s farmers due to the wet spring, inability to plant, and other factors making ag operations difficult. Alexander opened with, “While the ag industry has been dealing with many challenges, our wet spring has led to additional challenges. This situation has long-lasting and far-reaching impacts not only on the farmer’s bottom line but on all of our state’s agricultural economy, as well.”

The state’s farmers are coping with a difficult growing season, with record rainfall hindering planting – only 68 percent of the corn and 70 percent of the soybean crop planned were planted. In addition, the industry has faced global economic pressures and financial stress.

“We have a unique situation for this state, in that we have a lot of active farmers on this legislative panel today. It’s my hope at this hearing we will bring to the forefront the concrete steps it takes to help our farmers out,” said Daley.

Doug Darling, a sixth-generation full-time farmer from Monroe County, provided a grassroots perspective as he pointed out the hardship this weather has had. “Approximately two-thirds of my farm ground is not planted.” He went on to list how this weather has not only affected his family but the entire ag community.

He had corn seed delivered that he had to return. He’s not in the field and his equipment is not needing serviced, so the local equipment dealer is not getting his business. “I have 27,000 gallons of storage capacity on our farm; it’s full with this year’s fertilizer, which I am going to carry over to next year,” he explained.

“I also have fertilizer that was pre-purchased that is sitting in Toledo and Webberville, that I have the privilege of now paying storage on.” He continued with a litany of more examples of how other farmers will be affected by the wet spring.

Darling said while the crop insurance is great and helps him sleep at night, not everyone purchased it and some producers bought just the bare-bones coverage. He noted while farmers are eternal optimists, the outcome of this crop season is weighing heavily on minds statewide.

Stephanie Schafer, a dairy farmer from Clinton County, stressed how the poor crop year will affect the livestock industry. She talked about the need for a good corn crop, and pointed out the five-year drag on milk prices and how dairy producers are facing a devastating future.

“This has a tail to it,” she concluded. “A long tail.”

Joel Johnson, state executive director of the USDA’s Farm Service Agency in Michigan, outlined the programs available for producers as they recover from losses after a natural disaster. He said 19.4 million acres nationwide are enrolled in the prevent-plant coverage – the highest since that statistic has been recorded, and up 17 million from 2018.

Adrienne McTaggart, senior risk management specialist for FSA, said the Risk Management Agency is keeping an updated list of FAQs for farmers needing information on crop insurance and grazing and harvesting dates on prevent-plant acres.

Gary McDowell, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Department, outlined the legislative action signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that reauthorized funding of the agricultural loan origination program, providing $15 million in state assistance to financial institutions to provide low-interest loans to farmers who have sustained crop losses from bad weather.

Talking about the nature of the farm economy, Dave Armstrong, CEO of Greenstone Farm Credit Services, said, “Our experience with these cycles is that every day is a new normal, and it’s the environment that we have to work in not only today but also tomorrow, as we project the future to determine the best road map for our cooperative and its members.”

However, he voiced concern about the low-interest loan structure, especially in terms of funding and the payback terms, and farmers being asked to make a determination on crop losses before the harvest season has even happened.

When asked about the financial standing of Greenstone’s customer base, Armstrong pointed out of its 11,600 full-time farm customers, there are currently only 22 bankruptcies. The percentage of nonviable loans in 1987 was 10 times the amount there are today.

He  noted, “This isn’t our first rodeo with tough times.”

Farm stress is also a large part of the ag economy, and Jeff Dwyer, director of MSU extension, outlined the new curriculum educators created for farm families, called “Weathering the Storm in Agriculture: How to Cultivate a Productive Mindset.” This was developed as a direct response to the need to identify stressors on the farm.

After riding around the state and visiting all 83 counties and extension offices, he had three observations. “First, there is not a commodity group or a region of the state that is unaffected by the perfect storm and the specific conditions facing farmers and agriculture and the entire industry in 2019,” he said.

“Secondly, the complexity of the challenge today requires that we all acknowledge, recognize, and intervene where possible to support an industry that is critical to Michigan and the families who take enormous risks, even in good years, to put food on our tables, support a diverse economy, and contribute to the overall quality of life in this state.

“Finally, as one farmer recently said to me, this is cataclysmic now. We will be dealing with the effects in the fields and in our homes for years to come,” Dwyer added.