Delaware farmers optimistic despite yields dip
Farmers experienced diminished harvests in 2015 and over-saturated fields this year
- Two years ago marked a banner period for Delaware’s corn and soybean crop.
- Corn yields fell by 4 percent and soybean yields dropped 16 percent in 2015.
Despite a dip in corn and soybean yields following a historic harvest in 2014, and an overabundance of rainfall during this year's planting season, Delaware Agriculture Secretary Ed Kee has a message for First State growers: keep calm and farm on.
“I think corn yields will continue to increase,” Kee said. “Ten years from now, we’ll be looking at better state average yields.”
After five years of climbing yields, 2014 marked a banner year for Delaware’s corn and soybean crops, which posted records of 200 and 47.5 bushels per acre, respectively.
The previous state record for corn came in 2013, with a state average of 166 bushels per acre, and the previous record for soybeans was in 2000, with 43 bushels per acre.
But corn yields fell by 4 percent and soybean yields dropped 16 percent in 2015. Though the U.S. Department of Agriculture won’t release Delaware's 2016 yield projections until August, estimates are likely to be affected by the roughly 18 days of excessive rain in early spring, which delayed farmers’ planting of the state’s two largest crops.
Corn remains the top crop in Delaware, taking up more than 178,000 acres of farmland and bringing in roughly $119 million for the state each year, at an average price of $3.80 per bushel.
Taking up more than 167,000 acres of Delaware farmland, soybeans claim the number two spot. Their production, at $8.40 per bushel, rakes in roughly $58 million every year.
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“In Sussex County, we had three weeks of bad weather that came on April 27,” said Jay Baxter, 35, operator of Baxter Farms Inc. in Georgetown. “The later in the year [crops are] planted, the less chance [they have] of capturing the longest days of sunlight. Therefore, it affects the yields.”
The rain delay was even more damning for Delaware soybeans, Baxter explained, as most farmers wait to plant that crop after their corn is already in the ground.
Pending another setback, such as a spate of dry weather in the decisive summer season, soybean farming in Delaware could grind to a halt, he said.
“If we were to come into a drought situation for the next month, soybeans would become dormant and stop growing,” Baxter said.
Kee remained optimistic about the future of Delaware corn growth, but said he expected soybean yields to plateau for the next 10-15 years.
“Soybeans respond to irrigation, but not as dramatically as corn does,” Kee said. “It all depends on adequate soil moisture from rain or irrigation, but also temperatures.”
“The plant is just a little more fickle,” said Susanne Zilberfarb, executive director of the Delaware Soybean Board. “It wants a combination of things that we haven’t completely figured out yet.”
Still, the early rain is not insurmountable, Zilberfarb said, and there is still the potential for record soybean yields in 2016. It all hinges on whether or not weather conditions can match or exceed those of two years ago.
“It’s really dependent on the wild card factor of Mother Nature,” Zilberfarb said. “We got rain all year [in 2014] and it wasn't too much rain at any given point in time. All the factors weather-wise conspired to be absolutely beautiful.”
Regardless of 2015’s diminished harvests and over-saturated fields in early 2016, Zilberfarb said Delaware farmers aren’t worried about the possibility of agricultural output peaking in 2014 or an emerging trend of declining yields.
“We would be concerned if there were some sort of disease or an insect came in that caused some sort of depression, but that’s not the case here,” Zilberfarb said. “There’s nothing bad or sinister or awful that's happening here. It’s just a natural combination of factors that conspire to pull that [yield] number down.”
Though he called the 2015 decrease “negligible,” Kee acknowledged any drop in yields could have negative consequences not only for crop farmers, but also Delaware’s poultry industry.
Chicken farmers clustered on the Delmarva Peninsula rely on Delaware’s corn harvests for animal feed, Kee said, and during periods of low growth, they are forced to turn to more expensive out-of-state suppliers based primarily in the Midwest.
In addition to such feed corn, Baxter — a fourth-generation farmer who operates the family business alongside his sister, grandmother and 92-year-old grandfather — cultivates sweet corn, lima beans, and small grains.
His three young sons also lend a hand by running small equipment and tending to their pigs.
“At this point in time, they love getting dirty,” Baxter said. “They’re quite possibly the fifth generation coming.”
First State agriculture is overwhelmingly local, Baxter said, with most growers coming from traditional farming families like his.
But that number is rapidly decreasing as more efficient, sophisticated farming machinery enters the marketplace and lessens the role of manual labor on Delaware’s farms, he said.
The demanding lifestyle, which sometimes requires 80 to 90 hours of work per week and often allows Baxter to see his wife and children only after they’re asleep, also deters new farmers from staking their future in Delaware.
“There’s probably one or two farms [in Delaware] that are corporate farms and operated elsewhere. I want the world to know that we are a family operation and not just some machine that holds up traffic along the route,” Baxter said. “We honestly have no choice but to increase our yields because there’s less and less farmers and more people to feed.”
But for Baxter and countless other First State growers with a love of family and farming, the challenge is worth it.
“I feel like we have to be optimistic going into the future. There’s always a desire to do more. There’s always a desire to increase our yields,” Baxter said. “I think Delaware farmers are some of the best farmers in the country. I think we’ll see an increase in yields in the near future.”
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the Delaware Department of Agriculture, not the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will release 2016 yield projections in August.
Contact Quint Forgey at bforgey@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @QuintForgey.