Content Detail

• Content META

  Title	FALL FARM 2024: Not a good year for Bamberg crops
  ID	4406850
  External ID	7248544806
  Author	Gene Zaleski
  Published Date	Oct. 25, 2024, 11:06 p.m.
  Summary	Low crop yields due to weather extremes, low commodity prices and high input costs were the trifecta of players facing Bamberg County row crop farmers in 2024 a year to forget. "Overall, it has not b
  Tags	None
  URL	https://thetandd.com/news/local/business/not-good-year-for-bamberg-sc-crops/article_6d1d9ffc-6c85-11ef-b20b-53c697b0ad1b.html
  Sentiment	Negative: 0.50606    Neutral: 0.40533    Positive: 0.08862
  Relevance	0.00000

• Content Details

  Content ID	2624325
  Key	e39cbbe3-c460-41e1-b58b-6c64b27c17d7
  Content	Low crop yields due to weather extremes, low commodity prices and high input costs were the trifecta of players facing Bamberg County row crop farmers in 2024 a year to forget. "Overall, it has not been a good year for row crops in Bamberg County," Bamberg County Farm Service Agency County Executive Director Chris Wallace said. "Crop prices remain low while input prices remain high and yields across the board have suffered due to hurricanes, winds, rain and abnormally dry conditions." Bamberg County farmer Richard Rentz confirms Wallace's assessment. Rentz grew corn, cotton, peanuts, wheat and milo throughout the county. "We have had two extreme dry periods and three extremely wet periods all in one year," Rentz said. "It has been kind of a challenging year to say the least." Bamberg County farmers describe this year's growing season as challenging. "Commodity prices are just awful, fertilizer is off a little bit from last year, but everything else we touch is up," Rentz continued. "Parts and anything having to do with labor are just awful. It is unbelievable." Rentz said he had both irrigated and dryland corn. "The corn was as variable as I have ever seen it," Rentz said. "We had 20 bushels dryland and 180 bushels dryland corn. We had 150 bushels irrigated and 250 bushels irrigated." "It was like the weather: all over the board," Rentz said. "I don't remember seeing that kind of variation." Rentz said he is hoping for the best with regards to peanuts as harvest had just begun at the time of this writing. "We got about 16 inches of rain out of Debby," Rentz said. "It literally drowned stuff. There were some pretty good spots in the field where we will hardly make anything." Rentz said he is hoping surrounding areas that got wet but where the peanuts were not under water will be able to make some. He is hoping for a decent crop. Rentz's cotton also "got beat out" from storm Helene's rains and he foresees the crop suffering some as a result. "It had taken a beating from Debby and Helene kind of finished it off," Rentz said. Bamberg County farmer Scotty Sandifer grew cotton and soybeans and as of this writing had not started harvesting the crop. He said the crop was planted later this year due to ongoing dry conditions. By early assessments, his crop is looking good overall. "We had some drought conditions in June and July, but we got the rain we needed just in time," Sandifer said. "It was getting close to being too late but we got some late rains there that helped us out at the end of July and August." Sandifer said the jury is still out on the cotton crop, but he said his crop had not been defoliated when storms Debby and Helene came. "The wind hurts it worse when it is defoliated," Sandifer said. As far as soybeans are concerned, Sandifer said he believes the crop will be good. "I don't think it was affected by the storms too much," he said, noting the drought also did not seem to put too much stress on the dryland crop. "They got the rain just in time." Here is a closer look at Bamberg County row crops in 2024. Corn About 5,461 acres of corn were planted in Bamberg County in 2024. This was a slight decrease from 2023 total corn acreage of 5,857 acres. About 35% of the total corn crop was irrigated. "Excessive heat and humidity and very dry conditions made this past summer a brutal one," Wallace said. "Early planted corn suffered enormously. A lot of non-irrigated corn burnt up in the fields, yielding next to nothing." Wallace said some later-planted non-irrigated corn may have averaged about 70 bushels per acre. Irrigated corn may have averaged up to 180-190 bushels. Tropical Storm Debby dumped 7 to 13 inches on Bamberg County the week of Aug. 5, which further damaged and delayed the harvest of corn, Wallace said. At the present time, the corn price is around $4.30 per bushel. Last fall, corn prices were around $4.60 per bushel. Input prices for non-irrigated corn were around $425 per acre and you could add $250 more per acre if the corn was irrigated, Wallace said. "Farmers would like to see $6 corn in order to have a reasonable chance to make a profit," Wallace said. Peanuts About 3,149 acres of runner peanuts were planted in 2024. About 30% of the crop was irrigated. This is an increase from the 2,816 acres planted in 2023. Bamberg County farmer Richard Rentz in 2024 grew corn, cotton, peanuts, wheat and milo throughout the county. "It has been kind of a challengi… Wallace said estimated peanut yields for irrigated runner peanuts may average 4,000 to 4,500 pounds per acre while non-irrigated yields may average 3,500 to 4,000 pounds per acre. Prices for runner peanuts are about $525 per ton. Wallace said local farmers would like to see runners bring $550 per ton. Debby (Aug. 5-10) and Hurricane Helene (Sept. 26 and 27) dumped up to 20 inches of rain in Bamberg County, drowning some peanut fields. On the Virginia peanut side, about 527 acres were planted in the county. This was a big increase from 310 acres in 2023. Wallace said the estimated yields may average 4,000 to 4,500 pounds per acre. He said about 90% of the Virginia peanuts are irrigated. Prices for Virginia peanuts are $550-575 per ton. Local farmers would like to see Virginia peanuts bring $600 per ton, Wallace said. Cotton Bamberg County cotton acreage increased in 2024 to 5,657 acres, up from 4,616 in 2023. "In early August, Tropical Storm Debby left 10% to 15% of cotton on the ground and matted up," Wallace said. "Tropical Storm Helene blew another 10% to 15% down to the ground." "High winds blew lint to the ground and tangled plants will make harvest more difficult," Wallace said. Of the 5,657 acres of cotton planted, Wallace said about 20% was irrigated. Cotton yield projections continue to fall. "Cotton harvest has not started yet but realistic cotton yields according to local producers range from maybe 500 pounds to 600 pounds per acre for non-irrigated cotton and maybe 700 pounds to 800 pounds per acre average yield for irrigated cotton," Wallace said. Cotton prices are about 70 cents per pound, which are the lowest they have been in years, Wallace said. With input costs, cotton producers need about $1-per-pound cotton prices, Wallace said. Soybeans About 4,647 acres of soybeans were planted in the county in 2024, a decrease from the 6,380 acres in 2023. Yield estimates are around 30 bushels per acre. "There may be better yields than that, but a very dry September really hurt soybeans' yield potential," Wallace said. Soybean prices are currently $9 to $10 per bushel. Farmers would like to see $12 to $13 a bushel to make soybeans more attractive to plant. Sesame About 30 acres of sesame (non-irrigated) were planted in the county in 2024, a decrease from the 96 acres planted in 2023. Sesame was harvested in mid to late October with an estimated yield of 1,000 pounds per acre at 50 cents per pound. Wallace said the price of sesame has dropped 10 to 15% from last year. Wheat About 677 acres of wheat were planted in the county, a decrease from the 2023 wheat total of 1,517 acres. The crop was fair to good overall (50 to 70 bushels per acre)," Wallace said. Wheat prices are currently around $5.90 per bushel, which is very low, Wallace said. Farmers would like to see at least $7 to $8 per bushel wheat prices in order to make a profit on the crop. Input costs Low commodity prices are combined with high inputs. According to ag market information provider DTN, fertilizer prices generally continued to be lower than they were a year ago. DAP is 5% higher while MAP is 8% higher than last year. The remaining six fertilizers are lower. 10-34-0 is 3% lower, both potash and UAN28 are 9% less expensive, anhydrous is 10% lower, UAN32 is 13% lower and urea is 14% lower compared to 2023. DAP (diammonium phosphate) had an average price of $740/ton; MAP (monoammonium phosphate) $814/ton; potash $459/ton; urea $485/ton; 10-34-0 (simplot liquid ammonium phosphate) $594/ton; anhydrous $685/ton, UAN28 $320/ton, and UAN32 $351/ton. Overview Though it has been difficult farming for the past several years, living off the land continues to be key in Bamberg County. "Agriculture remains a huge part of Bamberg County's economy," Wallace said. According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture data, Bamberg County is home to 260 farms consisting of 102,313 acres. The average farm size is 394 acres. The number of farms compared to the 2017 census was down from 355 and the amount of acreage decreased from 102,591 acres. The average size of a farm in 2017 was 289 acres. The agricultural census is taken every five years. Overall, Bamberg County ranked 15th in the total market value of crops sold at $47.3 million, according to the 2017 census. Adding livestock and poultry, the county ranked 22nd in the total market value of products sold at $74.2 million. The county ranked fourth in melons, vegetables, sweet potatoes and potato sales at $12.6 million. The county ranked seventh in cotton sales at $10.2 million and seventh in nursery, greenhouse, floriculture and sod. Contact the writer: gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5551. Check out Zaleski on Twitter at @ZaleskiTD.
  Content Reference URL	None

• Publisher

  Publisher Name	Orangeburg Times and Democrat (SC)
  Publisher URL	https://thetandd.com/
  Description	None
  Trust Flow Score	49
  Citation Flow Score	36

• Data Source

  Data Source Name	Quantexa News
  Data Source Type	news
  Data Source URL	https://app.aylien.com/dashboard
  Description	Welcome to Quantexa News API — the most powerful way to aggregate, filter, and integrate global news data into your apps and models.
  Weight	10