| LANSING - Some farmers are worried they might reap slashed
incomes for their crops this year because of inclement summer weather.
"There's a lot of guys discouraged, and I'm one of them,"
said Dave Milligan, a Tuscola County farmer who expects only "about
half a crop" of dry beans. He grows corn, soybeans, sugar beets, navy
beans, black beans and small red beans near Cass City.
"I've got 30 years invested," said Milligan, whose farm dates
from 1910. "I don't know what else I'd do, but it's sure a poor
return on (an) investment."
Acres of Michigan dry beans were hit by too much rain, which could
reduce the yield in east and southeast Michigan.
The dry bean harvest topped 440 million pounds in 1998, the most recent
year for which complete figures are available, but has represented a
declining source of income - $97 million in 1998 compared to $145 million
in 1994.
"We haven't harvested much yet because everything is late,"
said Paul S. Vasold, a semi-retired grower who farms 900 acres of dry
beans, sugar beets, soy beans, wheat and corn with his son, Paul H. Vasold,
near Freeland.
"We had quite a cool summer and quite a lot of rain, and that
affects crops. We had to replant about half the navy beans."
Sugar beets weren't damaged as much by rain, but they may bring prices
as low as $28 a ton, Milligan said, compared to $40 just a few years ago.
"Prices are the pits," Vasold said. "Usually you could
depend on sugar beets to be a fairly good price. That's even
slipping."
Other farmers say they aren't worried.
Farmer Lowell Bebow, who raises sugar beets and four varieties of
edible beans on about 1,900 acres in Gratiot County with his son and
nephew, said he'll do fine.
"We thought we weren't going to have much, but for the year we've
had, we're getting some pretty decent yields," Bebow said.
"We've had a good fall."
In the apple industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts a
reduced crop of about 19 million bushels, compared to last year's 29
million bushels.
Despite that, Patrick O'Connor, spokesman for the Michigan Apple
Committee, said much of the state's far-flung apple business enjoyed the
right kind of weather for tasty fruit - sunny days and cool nights.
Michigan produces the nation's third-largest apple crop each year.
Earlier this year, a fire blight outbreak on more than 7,000 acres of
orchards prompted Gov. John Engler to obtain federal disaster relief for
fruit growers hurt by the blight and hail in seven southwestern counties
that grow 3 million to 5 million bushels of apples. |