Farmers still feeling impact from bad year, struggling with credit

MARYLAND – This year has many farmers going all in and hoping for the best. The reason why is after a record down 2018, some farmers still haven’t paid off their debts from last year.

“It’s one of those situations where you’re literally rolling the dice,” explains Snow Hill farmer Virgil Shockley.

A few months into 2019, farmers on Delmarva are finding themselves in a tough spot trying to get credit after one of their worst years in decades last year.

“If you had a struggle last year and you didn’t quite pay off what you owed then you have the struggle of trying to get the money offset, so who’s going to take chances on you.”

Many struggled to make ends meet and several weren’t able to pay off the debt they started racking up due to the rough year, so farmers are finding ways to cut costs.

“I’ve talked to a lot of guys who basically said they’re just going to plant soybeans because that’s the cheapest thing and hope for the best,” says Shockley.

Unfortunately, there’s hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses farmers have to be able to have every given year which is why big credit lines are a necessity because farming isn’t cheap.

“You need $40,000 worth of fertilizer, you need $30,000 worth of seed and you hold back in my case $15,000 worth of repairs, so you’re at $80,000 before you’ve ever started.”

And because banks view farming as a gamble, especially after a difficult 2018, Shockley says many banks aren’t willing to take the risk.

“It gets very dangerous very quickly.”

We reached out to Farm Credit, a common bank for farmers on the Eastern Shore, but they declined an interview.

Instead giving us a statement saying, “This past year was a trying one for many farmers within our footprint, and some are still facing challenges. Farm Credit has and will continue to be in communication with our members, discussing their individual situation. We encourage anyone who may be experiencing challenges to reach out to us or their lender to discuss what options may be available to them.”

But Shockley says if things don’t change, if mother nature isn’t kind and crop prices don’t go up.

“You’re going to see a lot of land for sale, you’re going to see a lot of auctions and that’s going to be how it’s going to be.”

Shockley adds that the major flooding in Missouri that’s happening right now could actually help farmers here because the last time the Midwest experienced big storms, the prices in corn and soybeans went up.

And right now even though farmers are still feeling the impacts of 2018 and a rough start to 2019 with the frost and rain, farmers are actually doing okay crop wise.

The last ten days of mild weather have been huge for farmers here on the shore.  Many were able to get tractors into the fields and some actually got a few crops in the ground. So right now, farmers are staying optimistic.

“Looking at the extended forecast, I don’t see anything that’s keeping me up at night right now. You know we knew this rain was coming so we are just going to try and push all the way up until it and we did. We were in all the way until the rain started to fall,” explains local farmer Andy Holloway.

We’re told as soon as the rain we’re experiencing right now clears up, farmers will be back in the fields getting tilling the land and starting to plant the seeds in the ground.