SOUTHEAST MISSOURI FARMERS FACE UNCERTAINTY

After flooding in 1998 and drought last year, farmers in Southeast Missouri have reason to fear 2000.

"Most farmers went into 1999 with some optimism," said Mike Blankenship of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Pemiscot County. "But after all we've been through, nobody's really looking forward to 2000."

Some of the lowest prices in decades for crops and another disasterous weather year have pushed many farmers in the usually agriculturally strong Bootheel to the edge of quitting.

In 1999, farmers experienced poor yields and low prices, said Glenn Barks, who is in charge of the Southeast Missouri USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service.

The poor yields were a repeat of 1998, when flood damage saw farmers attempting to replant soybean crops two or three times in one season, Barks said.

Prior to that, Southeast Missouri had a successful season. Seven of Missouri's top ten counties in 1997 for cash receipts for crops were in the Bootheel, state agricultural statistics show.

The two hard years have caused both new and old farmers to quit, Barks said. Both Dunklin and Pemiscot counties were hit especially hard, he said.

As many as 400 farmers have applied for the federal crop loss disaster assistance program, and more are coming, said Aaron Ivie, director of the USDA's Farm Service Agency in Dunklin County. The program will provide subsidies to farmers who achieved crop yields below 65 percent.

"It's not going to give them a whole lot of money, but it will help them survive," said Terry Birk, director of Cape Girardeau County's Farm Service Agency.

The region's biggest cash crop, soybeans, suffered most.

Crops that were irrigated gave decent yields, but in Butler County, where two-thirds of soybeans are not irrigated, crops were destroyed, said Stanley Lamb, director of the Farm Service Agency in the county. Soybean yields were less than 10 bushels an acre in 1999, down from 33 bushels in 1997.

But rice, corn and wheat did well, Lamb said.

"We got rain early on, and that helped the corn," he said. "And our 72,000 acres of rice is heavily irrigated as rice always is."

Pemiscot, along with Mississippi, New Madrid and Stoddard counties, typically produce more soybeans than any others in the state. But last year hurt them, said Blankenship, director of Pemiscot County's Farm Service Agency. Pemiscot County farmers saw soybean yields fall 25 to 55 percent, he said.

"It was just another devastating year," Blankenship said. "But the thing is, 1998 was just as bad. This has reduced the equity position of many farmers to zero."

As experienced and young farmers both abandon their fields, the effect ripples through agriculture as a whole, he said. The value of farm equipment has dropped with a glut of used rigs on the market. It's not unusual for farmers to get a return of 20 cents for every dollar spent on tractors and other machines they can no longer afford, he said.

"When you're a farmer and experience a $100,000 or $200,000 loss in one year, you can't overcome it," Blankenship said.

Prices for livestock are generally better now, especially for hogs, Birk said. Hog prices fell drastically last year, causing some farmers to quit.

Another factor that hurt livestock was dry pastures. With nothing to graze, cattle were fed hay as early as August rather than December, Birk said. This means farmers will run out of hay sooner, creating an extra expense.

As for crops, corn planted early did well in Cape Girardeau County, but other crops were hurt.

Rather than abandon farming, many are working part-time or full-time jobs away from their farms while family members offer a little more assistance with chores.

"People live out in the country because they enjoy the rural lifestyle, and they'll do whatever they can not to give that up," Barks said.

In 1997, 41.9 percent of farm operators said they worked 200 days or more a year off their farms, according to the Missouri agricultural census, a comprehensive statistical report given every five years through support from the USDA. This percentage is increasing, and will probably continue to increase, Barks said, particularly among part-time farmers.

"They don't have a large acreage to spread their costs over," he said.

It has become more common now when a farmer sells out that his neighbors will purchase his land and farm it jointly, Barks said. Large, corporate-owned farms practically don't exist in Missouri, he said, but independent farmers know that they must mimic some of their tendencies.

"The individual farmers are getting bigger, because they know that's the only way they can survive," Barks said.