Ag businesses may cut down workforce

The economic impact of the intentional breach of the Birds Point levee is hard to overestimate, Missouri Department of Agriculture director Dr. Jon Hagler said Tuesday.

"Our hearts are with the farm families in Southeast Missouri," Hagler said.

At MRM Ag Service, near East Prairie, Mo., Kevin Mainord estimates 35 to 40 percent of his business washed away as floodwaters poured into the spillway. Mainord, MRM's sales and marketing director, also farms about 10,000 acres in the spillway area.

The business of selling seed and fertilizer was already slow this spring as rains kept fields too wet to work. Mainord said he doesn't expect anyone in that area to plant anything this year. Water may not drain out of the floodway until late summer or even early fall, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates.

"No one would venture to plant anything until the levee is repaired," Mainord said.

Without farmers buying seed, fertilizer and supplies, Mainord expects some of MRM's about 40 employees may soon be laid off. Some workers may leave the area, which will have an effect on other nonfarm businesses in the community.

"I know a couple farmers whose entire operation is in the spillways. They have either laid off employees or let them go for good," Mainord said. "It's just going to be devastating."

Keith Jorgensen, CEO of Delta Growers, a Charleston-based farming cooperative selling seed, fertilizer, chemicals and fuel, said it's too early to estimate the impact of the levee breach on his business, which employees about 80 people.

"There are lots of opinions, but right now they're just that -- opinions," he said. "Right now we're in uncharted waters, we just don't know."

Two farm implement dealers in Charleston, French Implement Co. and Delta New Holland, declined to comment about the effect it may have on their businesses.

Although livestock makes up a much smaller portion of agriculture operations in the area than crops, the levee breach also put many animals at risk. The Missouri Department of Agriculture assisted with the evacuation of more than 2,000 sows and 1,600 piglets at one Mississippi County farm in the floodway; 64 cattle and three horses were also evacuated.

Federal assistance

Hagler has spoken with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and hopes the state department can serve as a conduit to federal disaster assistance programs.

"A whole range of programs are available for our farm families and we want to do what we can to ensure they have that information," Hagler said.

The USDA Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program provides assistance to farmers suffering crop losses due to natural disasters. The USDA Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program covers losses when natural disasters, including floods, prevents crops from being planted. USDA has other programs to cover livestock losses. USDA's Rural Development program may provide funds to help rebuild infrastructure such as roads damaged in the levee breach, Hagler said.

"There is no more fertile farm ground in the world than in the Bootheel," Hagler said. "We will coordinate efforts to get folks back on their feet and get back to being the breadbasket region that it is."

More information about aid programs is available online at www.mda.mo.gov/disasterrelief and at www.fsa.usda.gov.

mmiller@semissourian.com

388-3646

Pertinent addresses:

3468 W Highway 80, East Prairie, MO

313 S. Hwy 105, Charleston, MO