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Sunday, April 27, 2003

By Len Barcousky, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Spring last year was wet and cool. Then, summer blazed hot and dry. The combination was bad news for many of the nearly 1,700 farm families in Allegheny and Butler counties.

Local farmers compared last year's scorching summer to the crop-killing drought of 1988. Most of Allegheny and the southern two-thirds of Butler, as well as all of Beaver County, felt the effects.

"Some farmers have had two or three dry years in a row," said Luke Fritz, executive director of the Butler/Beaver/Allegheny Farm Service Agency, a unit of the U.S. Agriculture Department. "They really need a good year."

They may get it.

Although many things can still go wrong, southwestern Pennsylvania farmers agree that spring 2003 is starting off well.

Soil conditions have been ideal for spring plowing, Fritz said. Fields have dried early, allowing farmers to spread manure for fertilizing. Oats, spring barley and early sweet corn are all being planted at a rapid pace.

"One farmer told me he usually finishes planting his oats around May 1," Fritz said. "This year by April 18 he was done."

Even the cold, snowy winter that brought icy roads, dead batteries and canceled classes turns out to have been good for certain crops, including about 6,000 acres of winter wheat planted across the region in the fall.

Severe cold and wind can burn the dormant wheat and barley plants, Fritz said, but a heavy cover of snow provides protection from extreme temperatures.

"The wheat fields do look excellent," he said.

Butler County farmer Gerry Somple agreed.

"We're pretty optimistic. The weather is cooperating and the planting is going well."

Farming is big business in Allegheny and Butler counties as well as across Pennsylvania. The state's farms produced $4.2 billion worth of crops and livestock in 2000, the latest year for which the Bureau of Labor and Industry has statistics. Butler County farm production totaled $39 million, while Allegheny County produced $20 million that year.

In 2001, Butler County had 1,260 farms totaling 127,500 acres and Allegheny County had 435 farms totaling 29,500 acres, according to state statistics. The state definition of a farm includes both nurseries and small horse farms that are run, in some cases, more as a hobby than a business, a state spokesman said.

"Dairy is significant in Butler County," Fritz said. "There are still a few fruit and vegetable operations, including Shenot's, Kaelin's and Soergel's. A lot of guys raise a few head of cattle on 35 or 40 acres."

"The terrain lends itself to cattle rearing -- hills and woodsy areas," he said. "It works well for sheep, too."

Rarer are grain growers. Fritz estimated that about 300 acres are needed to support each full-time grain farmer.

Somple, 51, grows oats, hay and corn on 30 acres in Jefferson, and he has fenced in another 25 acres for pasture, where he raises beef cattle. He also keeps pigs on his farm.

But, like most farmers in the region, Somple no longer can rely only on agriculture to make a living. He also works full time for Marmon/Keystone Corp., a pipe distributor in Butler. The combination involves a balancing act, he said.

Each winter, Somple buys 10 or so 4-day-old Holstein bull calves from local dairy farmers. "I have to bucket-feed them for six weeks," he said. It's something he has time for only in the winter, he said, because outdoor farming chores and his job keep him too busy the rest of the year. When his animals are about 18 months old, he sells them at auction.

Fritz estimates 75 percent of the region's farmers have at least one outside source of income. "He may be retired or hold a part -- or full-time job," he said. "Or the wife has a job off the farm that provides medical benefits."

One of the reasons farmers need outside income is that family farms are caught between a heavy need for labor and shrinking profits from farming.

"I was just talking to a farmer here in the office," Fritz said. "He's in his mid-40s and farms with his brother and sister. Milk prices are down, yet dairy farming is so labor intensive, they need family members to help with work."

In addition, new technology and hybrid seeds have meant that farm prices have stayed low, even as many production costs have risen.

A bushel of wheat, for example, sold for $6 to $7 in 1974, Fritz said. The current price is $3.47, not including the cost of trucking it to a flour mill.

On the other hand, a 100 horsepower tractor cost $7,800 in 1969; its modern descendant costs $65,000.

Nitrogen fertilizer, which is critical to corn production, has been selling for $300 per ton, Fritz said. Last year, it cost around $150.

Harold Foertsch Sr. is among the minority of local growers who have managed to remain full-time farmers. At Har-Lo Farms in Jefferson, he grows mostly grain, hay and potatoes on about 1,200 acres. Of those acres, however, Foertsch owns only about 108. The rest he and his son, James, rent.

Aging farmers have created an opportunity for Foertsch and his family. "Many want to retire but they don't want to sell for development, so they rent to us," Foertsch said. "We lime and fertilize and keep the land up."

Foertsch and son James farm full time. His other children, Harold Jr., Robert, William and Diana Leonard, all live within a quarter mile and help out.

This year will be a critical one for farmers, Foertsch said. For many, last year's drought was worse than the one in 1988, and he has seen several ads placed by farmers selling off their milk cows.

"With milk prices low -- at $9 or $10 per hundred weight -- many farmers are not covering their costs," he said.

Farm prices overall are mixed, he said. Since the market for wheat is worldwide, prices in Butler County will depend on demand and harvest size around the globe.

But whatever happens this year in agricultural powerhouses like Brazil and Argentina, he expects conditions will have to be better than last year. He estimates he lost 80 percent of his second cutting of hay and about 40 percent of his potato crop.

Several federal programs exist to help farmers through the rough times.

Almost all the region's dairy farmers have signed up for a milk support program, which provides government payments when prices drop below a certain level.

A livestock compensation program has reopened to reimburse farmers for some of the drought-related costs for feed. That program pays enrolled farmers $18 for each animal they owned on June 1, 2002. Participation in that program also has risen, Fritz said.

Federal farm support is a help, Foertsch said. "It's a lot of paperwork, and it gives you just enough money to pay rent on the ground," he said. "It's a little carrot hanging on the end of a stick to keep you alive."

Somple has been a lifelong farmer, but he isn't sure he would advise a young person to take up farming.

"You never get a day off," he said. Even in midwinter, when no work needs to be done in the fields, many farmers can't take a holiday because other work needs to be done.

"My dad had a dairy farm. I have it in my blood," he said. "I like it, but you have to be brought up with it. It takes a real commitment."

Foertsch, who turns 65 today, also has spent a lifetime working the soil.

He hopes that at least some of his grandchildren -- five granddaughters and one grandson -- will continue the farming tradition.

"Too many girls," he joked. "Maybe the girls will meet someone in 4-H."