Ohio muck farmers: It’s been a rough year

Alaina Rochelle
Jul 27, 2017 · 3 min read

By Alaina Bartel

The Muck Crops Agricultural Research Station in Willard held a Statewide Field Day recently where farmers, reserachers and community members gathered to discuss farming concerns.

Ben Wiers, of Wiers Farm, Bruce Buurma, of Buurma Farms and Mitch Holthouse, of Holthouse Farms, were three of many farmers present to share their crop reports.

“There were a couple weeks there we couldn’t spray…it was just very, very miserable. We’ve got weeds out of control,” Buurma said. “We’ve got an insect problem since we haven’t been able to spray for a few weeks.”

He added most of the cucumbers have been found laying in water and many are infected with mildew because of the high levels of rainfall. He said some of the cucumbers look good when harvested, only to break down two days later while in boxes.

“There’s supposed to be 60 people picking cucumbers, we’ve got five,” Buurma said. “In the meantime, all the other crews have to harvest their crops and then go pick cucumber and zucchini which leaves nobody to pull the weeds…the guys are working seven till seven every day and that’s all they can do. The place is ugly. You talk about ‘year to remember,’ well this is a year to forget as far as I’m concerned. I can’t wait for this year to be over.”

Buurma said although they’re facing issues, corn prices look good and “that’s the only bright spot.” At first, he said they lost 50 percent of their corn crop because of birds feeding all around.

“There are a lot of issues, it’s been a difficult year,” Wiers said. “Labor is a constant concern. It’s not going to do anything but get worse going into the future until our government can get together, both Democrats and Republicans and come up with a solution for us.”

He said when it comes to the farming, his findings are the same as Buurma’s: it’s been a tough year on the muck.

“The midwest as a whole, and the east coast, everybody’s suffered from some weather situation. Therefore we’re seeing a stronger market and demand for our crop,” Wiers explained. “Even though we don’t have as much as we would like, we’re spraying and we’re trying to cover our customers orders.”

He said they’re getting by so far but it’s been a difficult situation.

“As a farmer, Bruce and I, and all of us, we want everything to be perfect. Sometimes when that happens, the prices are really low. You’ve got to take the good with the bad,” Wiers said. “It’s been a definite struggle…I’m getting old and I don’t want to wish this year goodbye, but so far it’s been very stressful for everybody involved in our farming operation.”

These two farmers and many more share the same issues: it’s been wet, there hasn’t been enough workers and there has been a loss of crop to insects and bacteria.

Mitch Holthouse said they need more people to help with his family’s farming operation. He said they’ve had losses due to flooding, and hopes things don’t get worse but he’s optimistic about recent reserach to help deter weevil’s from destroying their crops.

“We’re getting by with what we’ve got,” he said.

Alaina Rochelle

Written by

Alaska journalist. The Ohio State University journalism graduate. World traveler. Storyteller. Craft bier enthusiast. First amendment fanatic.

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