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Image via Wikipedia It doesn’t happen often — as a matter of fact, the last hurricane to come this way was Hugo in September of 1989, but it seems that we are slated to get something of Fay by Friday or Saturday, although by then it will be only rain and not enough of that to relieve any of our current drought situation.
All but two counties in South Carolina were just last week declared Federal disaster areas due to the drought. By declaring them disaster areas, the farmers in those counties can apply for low interest federally backed loans to see them through until next year.
Our corn crops and hay crops were all but ruined this year due to the drought. Where we normally get 3-4 cuttings a year from a pasture, they’ve only gotten one so far and it looks like they will only get one more before the grass goes dormant for the winter. Beef farmers have cut back on their herds due to the lack of hay and the high price of grain which is making locally produced meat more expensive. Corn fields are just brown stalks with very small ears on them.
Our beef farmers produce some of the best tasting beef I’ve ever eaten, so this is especially bad to me. South Carolina is also home to dairy herds, chicken farms and other livestock and poultry producers. We also produce corn, beans, milo, hay, cotton and other feed crops. The local sunflower seed grower hardly got enough seeds this year to plant next year.
I know the farmers have insurance for some disasters like this. I can only assume it works something like term life insurance — you pay in until the term limit of the policy is reached or you have to collect on the policy. I’m sure it’s not cheap to have, so it’s doubly important that they have the federally backed low-interest loans made available to them. Still even with insurance and cheap loans, many will lose their farms and businesses which in turn hurts the state at all levels; local, county and state.
Although South Carolina is a fairly prosperous state and has a relatively low unemployment rate overall, things like this still create worry and stress the local economy. It doesn’t help to have jobs in industry and service if you can’t feed the people who show up for work or if food prices are so high because of the distance required to bring the food into the area that wages can’t go beyond living expenses.
The county I live in is primarily a rural one so it is very hard hit by this dry weather. Hopefully next year will be better and the steps taken by the government will help the local farmers keep their farms going until then.
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Tags: farms, Federal Disaster Area, low interest loans, South Carolina, United States
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