OFA Coordinator Pat Barnes (pictured
below) attended the NACAA Conference in Kansas City. 2011 winners Chad and Danielle Budy spoke at the conference (below).
OFA members suffer hurricane damage
From Charlotte
Vick Ferrell, NC:
Yes,
we sustained a lot of damage to our crops during the hurricane. Our place at the beach was fine, but it might as well blown
away because our hearts were ripped out when the sun came out on Sunday morning, August 30. Thank God it was only a CAT.1
and our lives and homes were spared.
We had 100% of our sweet potato crop, 65 % of our tobacco, and 100% of our cotton and soybeans to harvest. Pretty
much the entire year's worth of sweat and worry with one of the most beautiful, biggest crops we have ever had. We have sustained
80% or greater tobacco loss and maybe as high as 40% cotton loss. We did not get as much rain so the sweet potatoes made it
through we think ok. It is hard to tell how much damage if any until we dig them. Plus it is imperative we get no more rain
to save the potatoes and cotton! So far that is not happening because we got 2 inches of rain last night from the tropical
storm to our South.
My
dad quotes often ”we are in business with mother nature and sometimes she reminds us who is in charge. Just remember
she can take it all away and at the same time she can give it all back!” I guess he is right but this has been difficult
on us all. Financially, we will make it through this bump in the road. We were lucky to have had several good years prior
to this one.
From Rich Norz, NJ:
Yes, Hurricane Irene has had a big effect on us, in more ways than one.
With all the crop land we have along the river we have lost about
30% of our crops to flooding. We lost about 70 acres of corn. There was about 150 acres of corn completely under water, but
the rushing water only flattened about 70 acres, so we are hoping the rest can be saved. We also had about 90 acres of soybeans
under water also, although most of them are standing to some extent, so we are not sure how they are going to turn out? As
for the crops from our Agritourism business, we lost the rest of our sweet corn crop. about 9 acres. And we lost 17 acres
of pumpkins. The pumpkin field was quite something to see, the river came up and just swept the whole field way, and I mean
that there is nothing left, it looks like the field was just disked.
But other than crop damage we fared pretty well in the storm. Our house, my
father's house and the barns were unaffected by any of the flooding and we only sustained minor damage on the on barn roof
from the wind. And most fortunately, the wind spared our corn maze and haunted trail corn.
The biggest effect Irene had on us, is how the storm has effected
our neighbors. Debbie and I feel so lucky to have only lost crops, there are so many people in our area that have lost everything.
There are some houses in our town that got flooded out, including 6 feet of water in the downstairs of our church (tough clean
up). But the next town over has probably had about 1/3 of all the houses flooded into the first floor. It is very heart breaking
to drive through there and see all the contents of so many houses sitting on the street waiting to go to the dump!
Fire destroys dairy barn
On July 25, 2011 a devastating fire destroyed one of the barns on the dairy farm of Jeff and Tracy Vandergroef located
in Wantage, NJ. This barn was used to house calves and other young cattle as well as store all of their hay for the upcoming
year. There were no injuries, and all of their livestock could be rescued. However, as a result of the fire, approximately
6,500 bales of hay were lost, much of which was a high quality alfalfa premium hay used to feed the milking cows.
A fund has been established at Sussex Bank, located on Rt. 23 in Sussex NJ. If you would like to give a donation
please know that the family would be extremely grateful and humbled by your generosity.
