BUTLER COUNTY, Ohio — COVID-19 is affecting farmers in different ways — some good, some not so good, and some just plain difficult. 

Pedro’s Angus, owned and operated by Bill and Bev Roe, with Michael Everett, herdsman, is a registered Angus seedstock operation. They are using a lot more social media, said Bill Roe.

“More people will say, ‘can you send me a photo? Can you provide me with performance data? Tell me everything about this bull or bred heifer that you have.’ We are transmitting a lot of information back and forth before we ever set up a visit.”

Pedro’s offers free delivery with a special clearance from USDA to transport the animals throughout the states. They take an animal to a farm, the gate opens, they pull in and open the trailer, and the bull walks out. They don’t take a farm tour and visit like they once did.

Also, spring is the time for bull sales. They sell bred heifers in the fall and wonder if that market will tighten. Producers need a bull, but they don’t have to buy replacement heifers.

Double J Farm is the operation of Joe and Janet Streit, with employees Alex and Sarah Proeschel. They offer raw dairy herd shares, grassfed beef and pork, eggs, and meat chickens, all organic. 

“COVID-19 hasn’t had much of an effect on us.” Joe Streit said. “We have had an increase in customers since this started. A lot of new people are buying herd shares. I think more people are interested in knowing where their food comes from. Many people who have never been to our farm before have come here seeking meat; we’re just about sold out of meat.”

Their farm store has always been self-serve, so if two people are there at a time, that’s a lot, Streit said.  They have not made any changes because of the pandemic. 

At Oxford Farmers Market, farmers are reporting that their sales are very brisk; since the onset of the virus, people want the local food.  Larry Slocum, director, and Ross Olson, manager, hope that continues.

Added Olson: “We’ve been doing our markets every week all winter long. We’ve had great turnouts, vendors, and customers.”

The duo was in the process of creating an e-commerce website, but calling it v-commerce for veggie-commerce. People can order products online, then pick them up on a designated day. The vendors and farmers are updating the website weekly, sometimes daily, so customers know what’s available.

The market encourages folks to maintain space, but they call it personal distancing because they like to be social, Slocum said. They are also chalking off a big square called the Conversation Square so customers can go there to talk so others have space to shop.

“We’re not going to be able to have our children’s’ program just yet, and we’re not going to have the normal fair atmosphere,” Slocum said. But as far as fruits and vegetables go, the ground doesn’t know that we’ve had a COVID-19. They’re just producing like crazy.” 

Gail and Dave Lierer, with their sons, David and Michael, operate a grain farm, raising corn and soybeans. They’ve seen drastic changes, with markets below the breakeven point. 

“We’re holding corn and beans for better prices,” Gail Lierer said. “We don’t want to sell below our breakeven point, and right now we’re not even close to that. I’d love to see the grain prices go up.”

Plus, if a piece of equipment breaks, the Lierers can’t just go to the dealer; they have to call and order parts from a catalog online.The part gets shipped in, and if it’s wrong, they have to reorder and then go pick it up. 

“You can’t just take your part into a counter and say’ this is what I need.” Lierer said.

The Beisers, Gail, Andy, and their sons Dave, Danny, and Doug, have 2,500 acres of row crops, corn, wheat, and soybeans, some hay, a breed-to-wean hog operation, and about 500 head of fat cattle. 

“It hasn’t hit us too bad yet,” said Andy Beiser. “We haven’t been able to sell any fat cattle for three weeks because the packing plants are shut down. The price of hogs is way down, extremely low. We’ve got a breakeven on the weaned pig of about $30. On the open market there was a $5 offer for pigs.”

Producers can’t get the finishing barn emptied because the packer won’t take the market hogs. The finishers can’t take Beiser’s pigs because the barns have market hogs in them that can’t get to slaughter. 

“We run our operation tight,” Beiser said. We wean on Thursday and have sows in the same barns on Friday having pigs again. It creates a mess when you don’t have anywhere to go with pigs. We are selling some open market pigs this week. I‘m not sure what they’re going to bring, but we have nowhere else to go with them.”