Don’t count the chickens

This week, our local paper ran an article talking about the great profits in store for farmers thanks to the high price of grain and the Midwest’s disastrous weather.  My thoughts immediately went out to the farmers who are watching helplessly as their crop fields are flooded and their hard work washed away.  I have a hard time being elated about their misfortune.  Mother Nature’s fickle partnership has dealt many blows to the agricultural community this year, already.  My reaction to the naïve reporter’s story can be summed up with the old saying:  “Don’t count your chickens before they're hatched.”  A lot can happen between the first day of summer and harvest time.

Personally, we are facing the fact that the cold May rains wiped out a fair share of our no-till corn planting.  I had been hoping to concentrate our efforts this month on harvesting hay rather than replanting our corn crop.  Unfortunately, we have to squeeze both into our busy schedules.  Like everyone else in the farm community, we listen to weather forecasts to try to optimize the quality of our hay, and gamble on their predictions.  To mow or not to mow --- that is always the question!

While I tend to want to risk a bit of rain on the windrows, Mike is more conservative.  He contends our beef cows will eat older hay more readily than rained-on hay.  He is generally right when he tells me that our haybine needs to stay parked because of a threatening shower forecast on the Weather Channel.  And, because we are extremely dry and need the rain, I am happy when his caution is right on target.  Unfortunately, our recent rains have been barely enough to dampen the ground.  We are seeing our grass fields rapidly turning from green to brown.  I begin to worry about another drought year.

Since we intensively graze our pastures, we have been able to stretch the grass and keep the cows content so far this year.  Feeding hay in the summer is not something I want to do.  That has been the case on our farms for the past two years, and I was hoping that we wouldn’t repeat that routine in 2008.  But, we can’t control the weather and will work with whatever comes our way.

One tool we have added to our farm is crop insurance.  It has proven its value in 2007 and 2008.  I appreciate the continued support the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the Department of Agriculture have given to this program.  Farming without it could be disastrous with the high input costs we are facing.  Protecting these investments should be a part of every farm’s business plan.

What will the remainder of the 2008 growing season hold in store for Pennsylvania farmers?  Only time will tell.  It is far too early to be celebrating bumper crops and high grain prices.  Besides, our Commonwealth’s farms are predominantly livestock and poultry operations rather than cash crop farms.  That means we feed our high-priced grain to cattle, swine and poultry.  We are a net importing state for corn, soybeans and other feed grains.  Unlike our Midwestern brothers, the climbing commodity prices aren’t numbers to cheer about until we have a surplus crop to sell.

With the challenging weather we’ve witnessed already in 2008, I am nervously watching our nest eggs and hoping we won’t have to brood about the failed hatch when the crops are harvested.  In the meantime, I thank God for the fact that our plight is pale when contrasted with the devastation being witnessed by victims of floods and tornados in other parts of our country.  Our prayers are lifted up for these unfortunate farmers and their non-farm neighbors.

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