Life on the farm here in northwest Ohio is, as usual, challenging.
But the multitude of questions raised by the coronavirus pandemic has almost made people forget how near-daily downpours last spring kept many farmers from planting their crops on time — if at all — and how the entire Midwest was devastated by fields holding too much water.
Perrysburg Township farmer Kris Swartz was among those hurt by last spring’s flooding, and is cautiously optimistic about what will happen over the next four to six weeks.
He has tracked his first planting day of each growing season for about 25 years now. It has gradually gotten pushed back because of the frequency of spring thunderstorms, a trend he believes is a likely symptom of climate change.
“Obviously, our weather has been changing,” Mr. Swartz said. “Our windows of getting seed planted has been changing.”
But Mr. Swartz and others are now dealing with something that didn’t even exist a year ago.
Though coronaviruses have existed for decades, the novel and particularly deadly strain that was discovered weeks ago in Wuhan, China, is brand new.
Taking off like an invisible wildfire across the world, it is Earth’s worst pandemic since the Spanish flu of 1918.
The biggest anxiety for farmers in this and other parts of the country mostly involves what the public doesn’t see, from the health of its work force to potential market disruptions from clampdowns on global trade.
Crop planting — at least for smaller operations — is different from many occupations in that there’s little wiggle room if the few people trained to operate tractors and other big machinery at each farm get seriously ill.
“If I get sick, I can't expect one of my neighbors to do it,” Mr. Swartz said. “We're really good as a farming community in helping everyone out. But [the coronavirus pandemic] really puts one more hurdle in it.”
One of his neighbors, Nathan Eckel, who splits farming duties of his family’s 2,000 acres in Perrysburg Township with his two brothers, said it would be devastating if any of the Eckels or their employees came down with even a mild coronavirus infection.
He said he “can't just throw anybody in a tractor or a combine.”
“We're trying to keep our employees as healthy as possible,” Mr. Eckel, an Ohio Soybean Council board member, said. “We're really thin on employment and can't afford to have anyone get sick. If we don't have employees healthy, we're really going to be in a bind.”
And how important is global trade to people like Mr. Swartz and Mr. Eckel?
Consider this: One-third of Ohio’s soybeans — one of the state’s main crops — are usually exported to China.
Before the coronavirus pandemic struck, the United States likewise was working on a major trade deal with Japan that would have involved agriculture, Ty Higgins, Ohio Farm Bureau Federation spokesman, said.
And while falling food prices are good for consumers, they’re bad for farmers. Once stay-at-home orders began taking effect across the United States, the agricultural industry lost many of its sales to restaurants, school systems, and other large groups of buyers.
Although that caused more purchasing by families, commodity prices for corn, soybeans, beef, pork, and dairy have all fallen since the middle of January. The only one that’s held steady is wheat, Mr. Higgins said.
“What we've really seen it impact is the economics of agriculture,” he said. “There’s this cloud over all of us.”
With less fuel consumption as a result of the stay-at-home orders, ethanol prices have declined, too. That, in turn, has contributed to lower demands for corn, another one of Ohio’s main crops.
“It’s not just food,” Mr. Higgins said. “This has been a real hard time for agriculture.”
Soybeans also are a product used to make some industrial oils, Mr. Eckel said.
Farm operators deal with some of the same inconveniences the public does when it comes to shopping, too.
Buying bags of seed, fertilizers, or weed killers may require more online ordering or calling ahead for curbside service, rather than going into stores.
But there also are fears about what’s happening with services that support the agricultural industry, such as livestock processing.
The Denver Post has reported that more than 800 workers at the JBS USA meat processing plant in Greeley, Colo., called in sick on March 30 after multiple employees tested positive for coronavirus.
Reuters news service on April 6 reported similar outbreaks which caused temporary shutdowns at meat-packing plants in Iowa and Pennsylvania.
Costs rise for livestock farmers each time they need to postpone trips to slaughterhouses. It forces them to buy more feed for their animals, Mr Swartz said.
“If you have steer ready to go to a slaughterhouse and it’s closed, you must keep feeding them and that adds to your costs,” he said.
There are also concerns that commercial fertilizer will be shorter in supply if trade restrictions are placed on chemicals used to make them. Several, such as phosphate, nitrogen, and potash, come from outside of the United States, Mr. Swartz said.
“The big question for all of us is how is the supply chain going to hold up in the spring or summer,” he said.
Mr. Swartz said it could be the “new norm” for farmers to stock up more than they traditionally have in the past. But their immediate concern is the amount of rainfall in the coming weeks.
“Our pressure with spring is immense, anyway,” Mr. Swartz said. “You don't have a lot of time to waste.”
Mr. Eckel, who was applying fertilizer on Monday night, said he is eager to start planting crops again, too.
“As soon as Mother Nature gives us the window of opportunity here, we’re ready to go,” he said.
First Published April 11, 2020, 5:00 p.m.
