Farmers worry about the season

Jeffrey Borger has run Borger Farms in Kunkletown for more than 40 years.

The job has always been tough. Not just because farming is hard work; it’s shrouded in uncertainty.

“There’s no security,” Borger said. “I go put all this money in the ground, I don’t know what I’m going to have come October.”

It seems time has only added to that insecurity. Between an increasingly wet season and the decreasing value of soybeans, Borger said 2019 is looking to be his most unpredictable — and maybe even bleakest — year yet.

“I think it’s worse now than ever,” he said.

An average of 41 inches of rain falls in Pennsylvania each year. According to the National Weather Service, in 2018, that average was surpassed by about 26 inches.

And the rain hasn’t seemed to let up in 2019. The National Weather Service Forecast Office of Philadelphia and Mount Holly keeps an unofficial record of precipitation in various areas of Pennsylvania, including Lehighton.

According to those records, based on a 19-year average, 4 inches of rain falls in Lehighton in the month of April. Last month, the borough received almost 6 inches.

As a result of the excess rain, Borger is behind on his planting schedule. He typically starts planting his first round of crops in April. By the time mid-May rolls around, he has corn and soybeans in the ground.

But as of Wednesday, Borger said he hasn’t even been able to complete his first plantings of soybeans, or subsequent plantings of sweet corn, which is planted every seven to 10 days. If the rain continues too far into the season, he added, he might consider planting soybeans in part of his corn fields, as corn needs more time to mature.

But that’s not necessarily a solution. Soybean futures dipped below $8 on Monday, the lowest level since 2008. And Borger said if he does plant soybeans in what are typically corn fields, he runs the risk of overproducing.

“Nothing seems to work out this year,” he said.

P.J. Salerno, who runs Foothill Farms alongside his father, Peter Salerno, said the 108-acre Mahoning Township farm is also struggling to get some of its usual crops in the ground. The difficulty isn’t in planting in wet weather, he said, but in preparing the fields.

Salerno said it’s too early to tell what the toll — if any — the excess rain will have on the quality of this year’s yield.

“I’ll definitely say last year, it was a little harder to get into the ground, but this year is shaping up to be the same thing,” Salerno said. “It looks like it’s going to let up, but we’ll see.”

At Galen Glen Winery, the worry is less about the current rainfall — which is still affecting the winery’s planting of new grape vines — and more about whether or not it will continue into the late summer, Kathy Matson, tasting room manager, said.

Matson said last year, rain fell well into early fall, causing some hanging fruit to rot. Less fruit was produced, and consequently, so was less wine.

When customers came in to purchase bottles of this year’s Twilight wine, made from late-harvested grapes, Matson said she had to tell them that the winery didn’t produce any. It couldn’t leave any fruit hanging long enough last year, because it wouldn’t have lasted to harvest.

“If this fall is like last fall, it could be detrimental,” Matson said.

Danadee Miller-Boyle, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency executive director for Carbon and surrounding counties, said the ideal condition for farming is an inch of rain per week and plenty of sunshine. That obviously hasn’t been the circumstance this planting season.

Miller-Boyle said a lot of local farmers are facing the dilemma of when to plant their crops; it might be too wet now, but the longer it takes to get the seed in the ground, the longer it will take for it to grow.

“Farming’s a gamble,” Miller-Boyle said. “You work by Mother Nature.”

“We’re seeing a dark cloud right now, but hopefully the sun will come out,” she said. “You have to have hope.”