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Assessing Irene’s hit on agriculture

While there is a lot of damage, the general consensus is it could have been a lot worse. East coast farmers are just beginning to assess the damage from Hurricane Irene, while crops are flattened and roads are flooded, the loss to livestock seems to be minimal.

The North Carolina Department of Agriculture reports a lot of corn and tobacco crops are flattened. Power was lost to a number of the large poultry and hog facilities in the state. Smithfield Foods says some of their grower’s farms had minor structural damage but thanks to back-up generators, all hogs were being fed and watered. Perdue Farms says a number of their poultry operations on the Delmarva Peninsula were using generators. Delaware Agriculture Secretary Ed Kee says there was one broiler house in the peninsula which lost several thousand chickens to flooding.

The New York Farm Bureau has assembled a team to help farmers, President Dean Morton says “Stranded farms, stranded livestock, infrastructure damage and power issues appear to be the immediate concerns.” Damaged and washed-out roads could pose a particular problem for dairy farmers where milk trucks need to get through. Morton says there is also a fair amount of crop damage from the storm.

Floodwaters are also the main problem facing Vermont dairy farmers. Lindsey Worden, communications manager for Holstein Association USA, based in Brattleboro, Vermont told Dairy Herd Network the farms on high ground are OK, “Anyone in low lying areas, or located near a stream or river are very likely in trouble.”

Among the events shut-down by Hurricane Irene over the weekend, the Maryland State Fair. Organizers closed the fair down on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday, after inspecting the rides and the grounds, the fair reopened. To encourage attendance, the fair ran an Earthquake/Hurricane Irene special on Sunday with two-for-the-price-of-one admission.

The 4-H western horse show and horse races scheduled for Saturday night have been cancelled; the annual livestock sale is rescheduled for next Sunday night.