After back-to-back storms, some Ga. farmers fear for their future
NEVILS, Ga. (WTOC) - Waist-high fields of white may look like cotton farmers fared well through back to back hurricanes; however looks can be deceiving.
Ryne Brannen, a Brannen Family Farms Partner, says, “It’s not visible, cotton still looks fine, but there’s just not as much weight.”
Brannen, a fifth-generation farmer in Bulloch County explains with all of Debby’s rain, the fertilizer leached into the soil.
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“So a lot of fields that we picked that we thought were going to be a thousand pounds to the acre were 800 pounds, a little disappointing,” said Brannen.
Then Helene roared through right when they needed to start harvesting.
“That one was the worst,” said Brannen. “It’s kind of your worst nightmare when you’re a farmer to have a storm then.”
Bolls blown to the ground get dirty and potentially rot, the seeds could germinate in the lint, and all that leads to degradation of the yield. So, you can have all five thousand pound rolls, but it’s the gin that gives you a finished product weight.
Andy Hart has worked at the Bulloch Gin for 17 years.
Hart explains once the cotton is cleaned and put into 500 pound bales, a sample is sent to the USDA for a “grade.” And it’s graded on color, strength, and length of the fiber, and trash content.
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Hart says the cotton looked pretty good despite Debby, but Helene was the nail in the coffin for many.
He said, “We had pretty big yields of cotton starting to open and fluff out and was really looking good up until that time between the rain and wind, what it didn’t knock out on the ground, it discolored it.”
So the cotton that you see, isn’t as bright as it should be meaning a lower color grade and less value.
Ryne Brannen laments, “It’s not what we needed right now, because the commodity prices are so low, so we really needed an awesome crop to break even on the year. So to have a mediocre crop and low prices, it’s not a good, it’s not going to financially work out to be a very great year.”
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His brother, Jamie, says they’re lucky compared to many just a few counties away.
“We got just a small taste over here; you go 20 or 30 miles west of here it’s way worse. We could not had any cotton out here to harvest at all.”
Even through the worst weather, they say wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It’s a good way of life, it’s a good way to come up, raise your kids, but there’s a lot of challenges.” Hart says.
Jamie Brannen agrees and he just wants to put this year behind them, “I’m hoping 2025 is better.”
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