Local Hay Farmers to WSDA: "This is a disaster."
NORTH FRANKLIN COUNTY, Wash. -- To the untrained eye, local farmers' hay bales looked as good as ever. Much of it was golden brown, lightly bleached by the sun on the surface.
But instead of a healthy green color on the inside of the bales, many were brown, molded, and void of nutrients. It was the result of weeks of heavy rain, drenching dozens of hay and alfalfa farms across the county.
"This is a disaster. This has a huge financial impact on farmers," Drex Gauntt said, a local hay grower for Gauntt Farms, Inc. He's also President of the Washington State Hay Growers Association.
With many farmers losing up to 70 percent of their crop, Gauntt reached out to state agricutlural officials for help. He contacted the Director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA), Dan Newhouse, in the hopes getting disaster relief. That would make farmers, with major losses, eligible for low-interest loans and other assistance.
"Most of our haystacks this year are moldy or are really down in damaged quality," Tim Woodward said, Columbia Basin College Dean of Agricultural Research, Development and Education at CBC. He's also served on the hay growers board since 2001.
Quality hay is usually reserved for dairy farms. But this year, the hay is so damaged, most of it is headed to beef feed lots instead, and at half the price. If farmers average $140 a ton in a good year, they'll be lucky to get half of that this year.
"It's a pay cut," Gauntt said. "It's the equivalent of going to work one day and the boss saying 'the company's in trouble so we've decided that everybody's going to take a 20 percent across-the-board pay cut."
Woodward agreed. "A year like this, if they're on the edge, could put them out of business," he said.
"(The year) 2004 was the first time that it had ever been declared a disaster and this year, it appears that, it's a worse condition than what we had in 2004."
So Newhouse, who's also a farmer in Yakima, toured several different fields in North Franklin County, Mesa and Burbank so he could see the damage for himself.
"Its been an interesting visit," Newhouse said. "We can see some of the challenges they've had in dealing with these rainstorms."
Based on what he'd seen, Action News asked Newhouse how likely it was that the area would be declared a disaster. "From what I've seen and from reports I'm getting from other areas in the state - without having the numbers, for certain, to measure all the impacts - my gut feeling tells me that we will be successful in reaching that threshold."
Director Newhouse is going back to the Olympia next week to meet with governor Chris Gregoire and recommend to her that the area be declared a disaster. If the governor signs off, she'd then contact the federal Secretary of Agriculture's office. Her information would be then be passed on to Farm Service Agency offices in each affected county to collect reports from individual farmers. Relief would extend to counties outside of Franklin County, including Walla Walla and Grant Counties, who were also impacted by rain.
Finally, reports would go to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to decide whether to issue a federal disaster declaration for the region.
We will stay on top of that to and let you know if, and when, you need to file.
But instead of a healthy green color on the inside of the bales, many were brown, molded, and void of nutrients. It was the result of weeks of heavy rain, drenching dozens of hay and alfalfa farms across the county.
"This is a disaster. This has a huge financial impact on farmers," Drex Gauntt said, a local hay grower for Gauntt Farms, Inc. He's also President of the Washington State Hay Growers Association.
With many farmers losing up to 70 percent of their crop, Gauntt reached out to state agricutlural officials for help. He contacted the Director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA), Dan Newhouse, in the hopes getting disaster relief. That would make farmers, with major losses, eligible for low-interest loans and other assistance.
"Most of our haystacks this year are moldy or are really down in damaged quality," Tim Woodward said, Columbia Basin College Dean of Agricultural Research, Development and Education at CBC. He's also served on the hay growers board since 2001.
Quality hay is usually reserved for dairy farms. But this year, the hay is so damaged, most of it is headed to beef feed lots instead, and at half the price. If farmers average $140 a ton in a good year, they'll be lucky to get half of that this year.
"It's a pay cut," Gauntt said. "It's the equivalent of going to work one day and the boss saying 'the company's in trouble so we've decided that everybody's going to take a 20 percent across-the-board pay cut."
Woodward agreed. "A year like this, if they're on the edge, could put them out of business," he said.
"(The year) 2004 was the first time that it had ever been declared a disaster and this year, it appears that, it's a worse condition than what we had in 2004."
So Newhouse, who's also a farmer in Yakima, toured several different fields in North Franklin County, Mesa and Burbank so he could see the damage for himself.
"Its been an interesting visit," Newhouse said. "We can see some of the challenges they've had in dealing with these rainstorms."
Based on what he'd seen, Action News asked Newhouse how likely it was that the area would be declared a disaster. "From what I've seen and from reports I'm getting from other areas in the state - without having the numbers, for certain, to measure all the impacts - my gut feeling tells me that we will be successful in reaching that threshold."
Director Newhouse is going back to the Olympia next week to meet with governor Chris Gregoire and recommend to her that the area be declared a disaster. If the governor signs off, she'd then contact the federal Secretary of Agriculture's office. Her information would be then be passed on to Farm Service Agency offices in each affected county to collect reports from individual farmers. Relief would extend to counties outside of Franklin County, including Walla Walla and Grant Counties, who were also impacted by rain.
Finally, reports would go to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to decide whether to issue a federal disaster declaration for the region.
We will stay on top of that to and let you know if, and when, you need to file.
