By Ben Rappaport
It was supposed to be beautiful: Thick green husks of sweet corn growing eight feet tall for as far as the eye could see across Ethan Jordan’s farm in Columbus County.
At the beginning of May, the stars seemed to be aligning for a perfect growing season. The fields were lush, the soil was moist and the temperatures stayed steady.
Then came June, and the rain stopped. The heat turned up. Green stalks turned burnt gold, the soil dried and the corn didn’t grow taller than a few feet.
“It’s just gone,” Jordan, 27, said as he ripped off an ear of corn from an undergrown plant. “This is the worst crop I’ve seen in my life.”
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Every North Carolina county but one is experiencing drought conditions. But Columbus County is bearing the brunt of the dry summer and is the only county in the state in an “extreme drought,” according to the N.C. Drought Management Advisory Council. Nearby Bladen and Robeson counties are under “severe drought” classifications.
The lack of consistent rainfall is putting a tremendous strain on local farmers.
“All you can do is pray to the good Lord for rain,” Jordan said. “But even if we got some rain it couldn’t save this corn. It’d be too little too late.”
Whiteville, the Columbus County seat, encouraged residents on Monday to reduce their use of drinking water by 10%.
It’s been roughly seven weeks since the last substantial rainfall in Columbus County, according to the advisory council. The five-year average rainfall at this time of year is 26.23 inches; the county has gotten only 17.69 inches so far this year.
Whiteville has seen just 1.07 inches of rain in the past month, the driest 30-day period in 24 years.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported last week that 73% of North Carolina’s corn crop is in “poor” or “very poor” condition. The drought’s severity in the farming communities in state’s southeastern corner will likely have long-term impacts on the broader agricultural economy.
Columbus County was the state’s sixth-leading corn producer last year, accounting for 4% of bushels produced. Robeson led the state (7%) and Bladen (3%) is also in the top 10 counties for corn production.
During a drought, plants suffer because they cannot take up nutrients efficiently, said Dalton Dockery, director of the southeast district of the N.C. State Extension. The drought also slows plant growth processes, causing the plant to dry out. Columbus County crops are particularly hurt because of the sandy soil, which does not hold moisture well.
“The only thing that made May really good and June really bad is the rain,” Dockery said. “We underestimate how valuable a role that water plays.”
For many farmers, there is nothing they can do to mitigate the impact of drought on their crops. That’s especially troubling because the increased impact of climate change is making droughts more frequent, longer and more severe, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Jordan is a seventh-generation farmer. Like his forefathers, the profession is in his blood and it’s all he’s ever known. But a drought like this stirs doubt for the future.
“You pour so many hours of yourself into this land,” he said. “Then you see it basically dead. It definitely takes a toll on you.”
Corn accounts for about a half of Jordan’s 1,700-acre farm north of Whiteville where he also grows soybeans and peanuts. He said it typically costs about $650 per acre to farm corn; he calculates his total loss on the corn crop will likely total more than $450,000. That doesn’t account for the losses he anticipates on soybeans and peanuts, some of which have “baked in the dirt.”
In a typical year, Jordan said he harvests about 170 bushels of corn. But this year, he said he’d be lucky to harvest 60 bushels. The dryness also means the corn that is harvested will be lower quality and have increased toxins. Even the cobs that are fully grown have misshapen kernels because nutrients can’t travel evenly through the plant.
Many farmers have crop insurance, which gives them some money when their crop is lost due to unavoidable circumstances. That money, however, is barely enough to break even, according to several farmers who spoke to the Border Belt Independent. Most plans also cover crops based on long-term yield averages, so this year’s poor crop will lower those averages, making it harder to insure future crops.
Steven Smith, a lifelong farmer in Bladenboro, echoed Jordan’s pain. He said he sees his crops as reflections of himself.
“It’s all so personal,” he said. “You take the time, you prepare the soil, you do all these things to try to protect it. Then something totally not under your control comes through and takes all that away.”
Smith said he tries not to let the bad year define him and keeps moving forward, but it’s a challenge when the drought means he’ll struggle to make ends meet.
Along with the unseasonably hot and dry summer leading to lower yields, farmers who can salvage their corn are selling it at a much lower price. A bushel of corn today is sold for 33% less than it was a year ago, according to Business Insider. Crop prices change constantly due to several market forces, similar to trading a stock.
The last time Columbus County had a severe drought was in 2009. Farmers said, however, that year was not nearly as bad as this season because crop prices per bushel were much higher, so the small yields meant you could still generate revenue. Keith Enzor, 60, a Fair Bluff farmer, said there was less to lose that year.
“I sold corn back then for more than two times what I sold it for now,” he said. “Lower sale prices plus the quadrupled input costs of everything like fertilizer and equipment — it’s going to be real tough to see a profit.”
For Enzor, this season has been especially tough. After losing a family member earlier this year, he found it hard to go out and tend to his crops. When he finally worked up the ambition to work the land, his efforts felt futile.
“My dad always used to say, ‘If you think you got it bad, somebody’s got it worse,’” Enzor said. “That is really hard to believe right now.”
Like Jordan and Smith, Enzor is likely to lose his corn crop, and he isn’t optimistic about his soybeans either. For the first time in more than a decade, he had to buy feed for his cows because the pasture they graze is not growing in the dry heat.
Bad years like this, he says, make even lifelong farmers question why they chose this profession. Mel Ray, a Whiteville tobacco farmer, said this year’s struggles have made him want to quit.
“Growing tobacco has been a family thing all my life,” said Ray, who is on the board of directors for the North Carolina Tobacco Growers Association. “It’s in your blood, but when it starts to hit your pocketbook, it can get out of your blood quick.”
Then the farmers remember their why. It goes back generations: It’s the land that’s been in the family more than 300 years, it’s the practices passed down from father to son, and it’s the knowing you’re helping to feed your people.
“I told the doctor that pretty soon I’ll need a (blood) transfusion,” Enzor said. “They might have to take the farming out of my blood. I was born on the farm, raised on the farm and if I have it my way it’s where I’ll rest.”
