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Wells County’s Big Industry of Farming May Be Looking Up

By JIM BARBIERI
It seemed like a Murphy’s Law year for farming here in 2002. Whatever could go wrong went wrong.
It was a year in which crop production suffered from the rains and from not raining. First the rains came just as farmers were about to plant and washed out the regular planting season for many.
Then, near drought conditions set in. Heat and lack of moisture appeared to burn up crops and income.
In Wells County, corn yields plunged from the record-setting 2001with 165 bushels per acre yield to yields of 107 to 110 acres in 2002 estimates.
The soybeans yield stayed up better but still dropped from 51 bushels per acre in 2001 to around 40 bushels per acre in 2002 estimates.
There were government helps but not a lot of cheers.
Although the current season’s spring had its very heavy rainy period and washed out some plantings, the planting setbacks were not of the wide scope of those in 2002. And many farmers were able to avoid weather consequences for good planting starts.
What continued to bring concern for a time was the unseasonable cold that slowed progress of crops, although some better times are apparent most recently.
However, the big larger scope news has been that the record rains in the first half of May have been cited as ending the general drought conditions for Midwest states including Illinois, Indiana Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, and have eased the drought status elsewhere.
Further cited has been the fact that Congress passed and President Bush signed measures last year that are figured to increase 2003 payments to farmers substantially -- possibly doubling them in total.
Lots of hedging is heard on all these things because all the weather impacts of 2003 are not known yet.
But the fall of the dollar in the currency relationship to the euro and others has a plus factor in that it helps American exports, with farm exports a very big factor.
The U.S. has lost some markets abroad but may be recouping significantly in 2003.
In year 2000, Wells county ranked 5th in Indiana among 92 counties in realized net income for agriculture. Total income for Wells farms then was over $85 million, 28th best in the state.
Crop acreage has trended toward soybeans over the modern period with more than 100,000 acres planted in recent years compared to about 80,000 acres in corn.
Weather has dictated the result to some extent because soybeans can be planted later.