DTN News
Katrina 1 Year Later: Ports
Chris Clayton
DTN Staff Reporter
Bio | Email
Mon Aug 28, 2006 08:54 AM CDT
It's been a year since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated, not only the city of New
Orleans, but a large part of the United States' Gulf Coast. DTN's Chris Clayton is visiting
the area this week and reporting on how agriculture and agri-business in the area is
faring one year after the natural disaster. In this story he finds that shipping on the
Mississippi River has recovered quite nicely.
RESERVE, La. (DTN) -- The nation's largest port for agricultural commodities has been in
the midst of an economic expansion since Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana a year ago this
week.
The Port of South Louisiana, which stretches over 54 miles of the Mississippi River, is
home to eight of the largest shipping grain terminals for companies such as ADM, Cargill
and Bunge, as well as foreign companies such as Zen-Noh Grain Corp of Japan. Ships
from the Gulf of Mexico dock at the port to take on grain coming off barges from the
north.
Louisiana has three major ports -- the Port of Baton Rouge, the Port of New Orleans and
the Port of South Louisiana -- each stretching about 40 to 50 miles along the river. Of
the three, the Port of South Louisiana sees the most agricultural and grain shipments.
"This is a great meeting spot for the ships and barges to meet and transfer goods," said
Patrick Dufresne, a spokesman for the port.
While parts of southern Louisiana, including New Orleans, haven't recovered from
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, shipping along the Mississippi River has recovered. Tonnage
has increased at the Port of New Orleans while more companies want to relocate
businesses from within the city to locations along the river. That's drawing more
business to the Port of South Louisiana, which starts just upstream from the Louis
Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
In the past several months, food companies with hundreds of jobs in tow, have
relocated from New Orleans to industrial sites just off the river next to railroad access
points. Other companies that move industrial products also are relocating to the
industrial sites.
"We've been getting inquiries non-stop because it's a good alternative to New Orleans,"
Dufresne said.
Along the river about 20 miles northeast of New Orleans, grain terminals and oil
refineries are blended in with vintage sugar plantation homes that now are tourist
attractions or company offices. Expansions are underway, such as Cargill's construction
of a $100 million sugar refinery next to its oilseeds facility.
The Port of South Louisiana is a critical link to Midwest farmers and grain elevators.
About 2 billion bushels of grain, or more than 60 percent of U.S. grain exports, flow
through Louisiana's lower Mississippi River ports, which were closed temporarily last fall
after Katrina and Rita hit. The shutdown was brief, but it had a ripple effect across
commodity prices nationally, just before the Midwest harvest got into full swing.
"When we saw the devastation right after the storm with these barges strewn out all
atop the levies and fishing craft and shrimp boats scattered everywhere, we did not feel
we were going to be operational as quickly," said George Duffy, president and CEO of
NSA Agencies Inc. in New Orleans.
Duffy's company manages shipping logistics for a broad array of cargo, including 21
million tons of grain and five million tons of steel. Duffy said it is remarkable how the
shipping lanes recovered, though there was a lot of apprehension and disbelief at first.
"We did have kind of a lull about a month after the storm," he said. "The (shipping)
market took a big dive. People were very nervous and figured this was going to be a big
blow and [wondered] 'What do we do?'"
Figures from the Port of South Louisiana back that up. Corn shipments in the fourth
quarter of 2005 were down more than 2 million tons compared with the average of the
previous four years. Soybean shipments in the last three months of 2005 also declined
about 1.5 million tons compared to the previous four-year average.
Still, the grain industry has recovered. While the hurricanes gridlocked shipping traffic
initially, grain shipping has rebounded this year. Through the first six months of the
year, agricultural exports through the Mississippi River ports increased 8.7 percent over
2005 to a value of $4.1 billion, according to USDA figures.
"The facilities are all operational and we are having no issues relative to the physical
structure of the facilities," said Rick Calhoun, vice president of Cargill's grain and oilseed
unit in Minneapolis.
The river was actually open four days after Rita hit the first week of September last
year. Only a handful of grain terminals suffered any major damage from either storm,
and generally were ready to operate once power returned. Barges had been tossed onto
levies and were removed, but shipping companies were overall fortunate that no large
boats or equipment had to be removed from within the river channel.
The biggest downside to continued flow of commerce along the river is the struggle to
find workers.
When asked about the lasting effects of the hurricanes, Karl Gonzalez of Gulf South
Marine Transportation in New Orleans jumps right into the problems barge haulers have
finding and keeping labor. This was already a problem before the hurricanes, but the
lack of new workers has been exacerbated ever since, forcing some operators such as
Gonzalez to continually idle boats.
"You just don't have the number of vessels moving that you had a year and a half ago,"
said Gonzalez, who also serves as president of the Greater New Orleans Barge Fleeting
Association. "There is a lot of work here and we just don't get to it."
The personnel issues are compounded because of strict regulations on hiring people to
work on boats and the five years of required apprenticeship. Deck hands can make $150
a day plus expenses, but they may find themselves working 13 straight days. That
compares to shift work at fast-food places in New Orleans paying $12 or more an hour
plus bonuses for retention. The hurricanes also displaced people to other parts of the
country who just didn't return.
"The workforce we have is just dwindling every day," Gonzalez said. "Our industry, as a
whole, just has a lack of people to operate the boats."
Gonzalez said companies are advertising nationally for deck hands, but are getting little
response.
David Bollich, a grain marketing specialist for the Louisiana Farm Bureau, said much of
Gulf shipping is no longer feeling the effects of Katrina, but agreed that the shipping
industry is facing the same personnel issues that permeate New Orleans. The shortage
also affects the trucking industry moving commodities out of the Gulf ports.
"That would be the only aspect of it that I am aware of that would still be affected,"
Bollich said. "Everything else is back to where we were pre-Katrina, which is not to say
there aren't still big problems."
Also affecting the shipping industry is the decline of the open-top barge fleet, which is
used to carry grain. There are about 18,000 barges moving commodities nationally.
Numbers have steadily declined since the 1980s. Each year, more than 500 barges are
retired from service, but only about half that number of replacements come on line.
"We're continuing to shrink the barge fleet, that's the biggest problem," Bollich said.
That smaller barge fleet also has more demand. In the past, barges would haul grain
south, then return north empty. Now, barges are more likely to return north fully
loaded, which doubles the turnaround time, Bollich said.
"That's great for the barge companies, but now it takes a lot longer time to unload them
and reload them so there is more competition for the grain commodities," he said.
Barges can move far larger amounts of commodities than trains or trucks. A barge can
hold about 2,300 tons of soybeans. That's equivalent to 15 rail cars and 60 semi-trucks.
The demand for barges, along with higher energy costs, also have increased shipping
prices. Shipping costs have practically doubled in the past year to move goods down the
Mississippi.
"It's nothing to see freight cost three times as much as it did five years ago," Bollich
said.
Calhoun reiterated Gonzalez' concerns about labor. It's the biggest issue facing industry
throughout New Orleans, Calhoun said. People who left New Orleans did not return and
some have left since then because of housing troubles, he said.
"There's competition for the people, so the cost of doing business has risen," Calhoun
said. "We're able to function, what I would call functioning normally. Some of our people
are still living in FEMA trailers at this time, but the business is operating."
Labor is going to be "an ongoing issue," Calhoun said.
Chris Clayton can be reached at chris.clayton@dtn.com
(SS)
© Copyright 2006 DTN. All rights reserved.
DTN News
Katrina 1 Year Later: Rice
Chris Clayton
DTN Staff Reporter
Bio | Email
Wed Aug 30, 2006 09:34 AM CDT
It's been a year since Hurricanes Rita and Katrina devastated, not only the city of New
Orleans, but a large part of the United States' Gulf Coast. DTN's Chris Clayton is visiting
the area this week and reporting on how agriculture and agri-business in the area are
faring one year after the natural disaster. In this story he finds that southern Louisiana
rice and crawfish farmers hit by Hurricane Rita are still hurting.
ABBEVILLE, La. (DTN) --- Rice and crawfish farmer Elphege "Lil Gator" Mouton spent the
day Hurricane Rita hit rescuing local residents and members of the National Guard who
were stuck in lower Vermilion Parish when the flood waters rose off the Gulf of Mexico.
In the end, Mouton's house was largely spared from massive damage that wiped out a
majority of homes south of his place. His rice fields, on the other hand, weren't spared
from the saltwater.
"I was going to plant 600 acres this spring," Mouton said. "I ended up planting 68."
Rural counties of Vermilion and Cameron parishes in southwest Louisiana, among the
largest rice and cattle counties in the state, bore the brunt of Hurricane Rita, which
residents in those counties call the "forgotten storm." Rita left southern Vermilion Parish
largely devoid of businesses and most houses were destroyed.
North of the major damage in the county, Abbeville barely shows signs of hurricane
damage that affected the southern half of Vermilion Parish, but Abbeville's businesses
rely upon the success of area farmers. Some ag-related companies, such as a local rice
co-op, of which Mouton is a board member, are struggling to operate on minimal
support and might store just a fraction of its normal share of the rice harvest this year.
"It can't go another year like this," Mouton said.
Salt water saturated much of the rice fields in Vermilion Parish. Traditionally the largest
rice-producing parish in the state, about 40,000 acres of rice were not planted this year
because of salt pollution. Farmers ended up planting about 36,000 acres of rice in the
county this year. Rain would have helped wash out the salt water, but after Rita, the
region found itself in a drought.
"Everyone kept thinking that would rinse out," said Howard Cormier, a county crop
extension agent. "Here we are a year later and there has been very little rinsing. We
could still be in a situation next spring of having too much salt to plant."
Rice fields are surrounded by a series of locks and pumps used to flood the fields when
needed and pump out the water as well. Rice farmers constantly babysit the fields to
protect from any saltwater intrusion, Mouton said.
"(Rita) did away with all of that in 24 hours," Mouton said.
Kurt Guidry, an agricultural economist at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, said
rice, cattle and sugar were the agricultural industries that suffered the most direct hit
from the hurricanes. At least one rice farmer who grew 2,500 acres planted none this
year, he said. The effect is being felt in the towns.
"As agriculture goes, so goes some of these communities," Guidry said.
Statewide, acreage for rice was down 32 percent from 2005, according to USDA. That
was partially because of the combination of the two hurricanes and partially because of
poor economic conditions in the industry. It could be the smallest rice crop in Louisiana
since 1983.
Some producers prepped their farms in anticipation of planting, but loan officers
declined to finance their crops this year, Guidry said.
"By the time they found that out it was really too late to travel around and find other
lenders so they had to sit the season out," Guidry said.
Rice producers often get a second boost of income by harvesting their rice a second time
during the fall. The harvest may only be one-third the amount of the first harvest, but it
comes with few or little extra inputs other than the costs of harvest. Rita and the salt
damage wiped the chances for a second harvest.
"A lot of farmers really rely upon that second crop to really make their profit," Cormier
said.
Mouton has largely paid the bills this past year putting his trucks and machinery to work
for area contractors who are friends.
While he wonders about planting next year, seldom does a day go by that Mouton
doesn't get a phone call from another farmer looking to sell land.
"I've probably turned down 1,000 acres of land from people looking to get out," Mouton
said.
Some rice fields also are planted to harvest crawfish, not rice. Freshwater crawfish are
grown in more than 125,000 acres of rice fields statewide. About 5,000 acres were
damaged not only because of salt contamination, but Rita also blew in marine life such
as crabs that attacked and fed off the crawfish.
"Crawfish are a significant supplemental crop for the rice farmer," said Mark Shirley, an
extension office aquaculture specialist in Abbeville. "In a lot of places, we're not going to
get back to where we were before Rita."
Chris Clayton can be reached at chris.clayton@dtn.com
(SS)
© Copyright 2006 DTN. All rights reserved.
DTN News
Katrina 1 Year Later: Cattle
Chris Clayton
DTN Staff Reporter
Bio | Email
Thurs Aug 31, 2006 08:20 AM CDT
It's been a year since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated, not only the city of New
Orleans, but a large part of the United States' Gulf Coast. DTN's Chris Clayton is visiting
the area this week and reporting on how agriculture and agri-business in the area are
faring one year after the natural disaster. In this story he finds that cattle numbers in
parts of southern Louisiana hit by Hurricane Rita are down drastically.
PECAN ISLAND, La. (DTN) -- Donna Winch stood atop the metal frame of her future new
home 10 feet above the ground as her husband Dale looked up admiringly.
"If they take this one, that's it," Dale Winch said of the steel frame that would normally
be used for a commercial building.
"They" is a combination of hurricanes and termites that conspired to destroy their home
last September when Hurricane Rita hit Pecan Island along the Gulf of Mexico.
Undamaged homes along that southern stretch of Louisiana are rare and those that have
been rebuilt are elevated, some higher than the frame of the Winch's new place.
While the Winches' home was flooding, the family and area neighbors found themselves
in the midst of a roundup and rescue operation when Rita hit in the first week of
September last year. The handful of families left on Pecan Island rounded up and hauled
out about 2,300 cattle to higher ground. Cattle able to get out of the marshes were
scattered for miles along Highway 82, the area's only major roadway.
"We were just rounding up everything and getting into semi-trucks and moving them
out," said Ronald Winch, Dale and Donna's son.
Traditionally, the marsh areas of Louisiana are used for grazing cattle, but few have
returned to the southern tips of Vermilion and Cameron parishes since Rita hit. Between
Rita and Katrina, Louisiana farmers and ranchers lost about 30,000 head of cattle,
according to state estimates.
Ronald Winch estimates Pecan Island now has less than one-fourth the cattle it had
before the storms.
"A lot of people got rid of their cattle and aren't bringing them back," he said.
South of Abbeville in Vermilion Parish, Roland Viator runs Circle V Meat Market. He
knows from the lack of work that there are fewer cattle than normal. Typically, the
cooler at his meat locker would have as many as 50 carcasses hanging in it. This week,
the cooler has three carcasses he custom-processed for customers.
"Usually, this time of year, the cooler is full," said the 67-year-old Viator. "It will be two
or three years before the herds are rebuilt."
Viator, who lost about 20 cattle during Rita, often would employ as many as 15 people
at his meat locker and sell meat cuts retail. For now, the only people working are Viator,
his wife and his 91-year-old father.
"We just have a lack of work around here now because of the loss of cattle," he said.
Vermilion and Cameron parishes are generally among the largest beef-producing
parishes in the state. Vermilion may have lost one-fourth its cattle population to storm
deaths and subsequent liquidation. Cameron Parish may have even fewer cattle.
"What cattle?" said D.L. Brasseaux, a cattle rancher and land title abstract agent in
Cameron.
Standing before a 2,000-square-foot slab of concrete that once was the Cameron City
Hall, Brasseaux said he moved his cattle out of his 300 acres in Cameron Parish right
before Rita hit. He's not sure when cattle will begin to filter back.
"I've got a lot of pasture that I don't know what's in it," he said.
Despite a booming oil industry and a strong shrimp and fishing community, Cameron
remains a devastated town. There are a couple of small cafes that have recently
reopened, but most businesses, homes, churches and the hospital are gone. While much
debris has been removed, an outsider might think Rita hit last week instead of last year.
"It's going good as far as the oil goes but nobody's building anything right now,"
Brasseaux said. "If you haven't got a medical facility, most people ain't going to come
back ... You need to come back in about five years and see how it is then."
The overriding sentiment in southwest Louisiana is that the world thinks the devastation
was concentrated on New Orleans. In reality, Cameron was the center of Rita and much
of the town is far from recovering.
"We're kind of forgotten outside of New Orleans," said Fred Bourgeosis, a Lake Charles,
La., veterinarian. "Everybody thinks everything has recovered and it's not."
Bourgeosis, who works for USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, was
called upon by state officials to oversee rescuing and recovering cattle right after Katrina
hit. Both of the storms swept livestock out to sea with the water.
In Rita, cattle were displaced and sometimes found 8 to 10 miles from their home farms.
Airboats and helicopters were used to drop hay and water to cattle, as well as recover
some of the livestock, particularly in Cameron Parish.
"We recovered about 2,300 head that were stranded in marshes and places that were
mostly inaccessible," Bourgeosis said.
In some places, cattle were trapped in large floating masses of debris. There was no way
to rescue the animals.
Throughout much of southwest Louisiana, people rounded up and moved cattle to any
holding pens above the flood zone. Wayne and Linda Zaunbrecher's rice and cattle farm
near Gueydan, La., didn't suffer much damage, but their farm was a central point for
rounding up cattle in northern Vermilion Parish.
The state brand commissioners later came in to oversee that cattle were properly
sorted, a job made easier by identifiable brands.
"We were able to get all but about 30 head back to the owners," Bourgeosis said.
Few materials items escaped Rita. Pastures were littered with everything from shingles
and metal siding to cars and small oil tanks. The vast majority of the region does not
have cattle numbers back to pre-storm levels.
"A lot of the cattle had to be sold and didn't go back into the area," Bourgeosis said.
"They are just now filtering cattle back down. People have been able to rebuild some
fences and get the pastures back up in some areas."
Pastures were believed to be damaged by salt water as well as filled with debris. But
some cattle producers lately have noticed an oddity. The Bermuda grass growing in the
pasture is some of the best they can recall.
"I don't think I've seen it this good in 60 years," Winch said after he and Ronald cut hay
this week.
While the Winches work on their home, they have lived much of the past year in a fifthwheel recreational vehicle -- like most residents south of the Intracoastal Waterway, a
line south of which everything is marsh or islands. Dale Winch said it's exhausting
waking up everyday thinking about what hasn't been done, such as repairing the fences
for his cattle.
"I could rebuild the fence, but I gotta have a place to live too," Winch said.
Chris Clayton can be reached at chris.clayton@dtn.com
(SS)
© Copyright 2006 DTN. All rights reserved.
DTN News
Katrina 1 Year Later: Helping
Chris Clayton
DTN Staff Reporter
Bio | Email
Thurs Aug 31, 2006 01:40 PM CDT
It's been a year since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated, not only the city of New
Orleans, but a large part of the United States' Gulf Coast. DTN's Chris Clayton is visiting
the area this week and reporting on how agriculture and agri-business in the area are
faring one year after the natural disaster. In this story he finds that Louisiana cattlemen
are indebted to private volunteers who have donated hay and labor to rebuild fences
after Hurricane Rita hit the area.
LAKE CHARLES, La. (DTN) -- Recurring themes from farmers and rural residents affected
by Hurricane Rita are praise for private volunteers and curses for the nonsense of
government.
One group that has stood out in comments from bayou residents is the Fellowship of
Christian Farmers International, which has been lauded by fellow farmers throughout
Mississippi and Louisiana for their volunteer work, particularly delivering hay for cattle.
"Our goal is to give them enough hay to keep their momma cows alive," said Dennis
Schlagel, executive director of the group, in a phone interview from the Farm Progress
Show where the Fellowship of Christian Farmers has a booth.
The Fellowship, which is based in Lexington, Ill., began sending shipments of hay to
cattle producers hit by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as early as last October and haven't
stopped. Initially, they were almost met with skepticism from the southern Louisiana
Cajuns, Schlagel said.
"Cajuns are a tough people and they are a hard group to help," he said. "They have such
a long history of people not being genuine with them."
Over time, kinship has grown as anywhere from 450 to 500 farmers from 14 states have
made it to the Gulf States to aid other farmers.
"It's been an unbelievable outpouring," said Linda Zaunbrecher of Gueydan, La., a vice
president for the Louisiana Farm Bureau. "People across the country have been very
generous."
This week, Duane Plessinger of the Montgomery County Cattlemen's Association in
Dayton, Ohio, met with dairy farmers in Mississippi and returned to Vermilion Parish to
see what more help they need.
Plessinger said his Ohio cattlemen have as many as 40 semi-loads of hay they are
organizing to deliver to the Gulf States in the coming weeks through the Fellowship.
Southern Louisiana cattle producers are still thinning out their herds a year after Rita
because of poor pasture conditions in some areas and economics. Plessinger said it's
important for volunteers to do what they can to help the ranchers and farmers keep
their herds intact.
"They have no hay and they are still struggling with it," Plessinger said. "We're trying to
find out who's left and how much hay they need to survive the winter."
While understanding the desire to help, not every producer supports the effort. Bill
Pigott, a dairy farmer from Tylertown, Miss., said such efforts to provide supplies to
farmers have caused headaches because of the disparate need for hay. At times, each
farmer can end up with an insignificant amount because everyone wants some. The
same situation has applied to other materials such as replacement fence wire.
"There's so much need that it doesn't go far," Pigott said. "And then it's amazing how
some people try to take advantage of charity too when they really don't need it."
Still, Pigott said farmers across the country showed amazing generosity after the storm.
Dairy producers from several states, for instance, sent replacement generators to
Mississippi and Louisiana dairymen to keep their operations going while electricity was
down.
"If that had not happened, there would been a lot more generators burned up," he said.
Earlier this year, the Fellowship organized a campaign to help repair pasture fences
throughout Vermilion Parish, which may have lost as many as 10,000 cattle from Rita
due to both deaths and herd liquidation afterward. The Fellowship has done so much
work in Vermilion Parish the group has set up its own mobile office as well.
Dale Winch of Pecan Island, La., said he was thankful Fellowship farmers helped with
some cleanup efforts and provided hay to his cattle. Almost all of Winch's 2005 crop hay
was wiped out when Rita struck. Winch also can't recall the name of the group that sent
some students from Chicago down, but he remembers they changed his perception of
inner-city youths.
"It made you feel good about kids again instead of all the negatives you hear about,"
Winch said.
The efforts of the volunteer farmers are being recognized. On Wednesday, Marathon Oil
Co. gave the Fellowship of Christian Farmers $10,000 to help defray the fuel costs for
delivering hay to southwest Louisiana cattle producers.
Andrew Granger, a livestock extension agent in Vermilion Parish, also acknowledged the
volunteer farmers from states such as Nebraska who brought hay asking only for half
the costs of fuel to deliver it.
"We've had a lot of situations like that with the Fellowship of Christian Farmers,"
Granger said.
Now the Nebraskans may need help, at least in the northwest corner of the state.
Schlagel is organizing a hay run to parts of Nebraska that suffered through significant
wildfire damage in late July and early August. Wildfires affected several communities
and ranches over major cattle-raising communities such as Valentine and Chadron.
Chris Clayton can be contacted at chris.clayton@dtn.com
(SS)
© Copyright 2006 DTN. All rights reserved.
DTN News
Katrina 1 Year Later: Dairies
Chris Clayton
DTN Staff Reporter
Bio | Email
Fri Sep 1, 2007 10:04 AM CDT
It's been a year since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated, not only the city of New
Orleans, but a large part of the United States' Gulf Coast. DTN's Chris Clayton is visiting
the area this week and reporting on how agriculture and agri-business in the area are
faring one year after the natural disaster. In this story he looks at the damage done to
dairies in the area and how they are still feeling the effects.
TYLERTOWN, Miss. (DTN) -- Hurricane Katrina did its best to test the will of Walthall
County's small, family dairy operations that are a critical economic center for agriculture
in southwest Mississippi.
A year ago, residents of Tylertown and neighboring communities awoke from Hurricane
Katrina without electricity to find buildings destroyed and fallen trees everywhere. Rural
southwest Mississippi is largely timberland with some towns and pastures cut out for
good measure. The trees that fuel a large lumber industry came crashing down with the
winds of Katrina and effectively trapped everyone where they were.
Dairy producers found themselves without power to milk their cows and keep the milk
cooled. They quickly put their backup generators into action, but then realized there was
no easy solution for getting trucks to haul the milk out. Anyone planning to go anywhere
needed chainsaws and often a bulldozer to clear any kind of path around the fallen
trees.
Backup generators also are often short-term solutions. The motors burn up with
sustained use and if they are linked to a tractor for power, the tractors give out over
time as well. Some producers went through two or three generators over the next
month. They then found themselves also running short of diesel fuel to run the
generators.
"When it got down to almost nothing, the people really started to panic," said Bill Pigott,
a third-generation dairyman in the county.
Most dairymen in Mississippi and Louisiana found themselves pouring milk down a drain
for a minimum of a week. They couldn't keep the milk cool, couldn't get it trucked out
and most of the area processing facilities were without power as well.
With 4,700 dairy cows, Walthall County is Mississippi's largest dairy county and accounts
for about one-fifth of the state's dairy cattle population, even though USDA projects the
county lost about 500 head of dairy animals over the past year.
Walthall County has about 10 fewer dairies than it did a year ago with less than 30 left
in the county.
"Some of those that shut down were probably going to sell out anyway, but the storm
sped the process up," said Lamar Adams, the Walthall County Extension office director.
"A lot of them that are left are in a financial bind."
Those producers who have stuck it out have spent the last year rebuilding while going
through a drought that has drastically reduced hay in Louisiana, Mississippi and
Alabama.
"That's what really took so much toll on the dairy industry," Pigott said. "People were
scrounging for hay. They were begging for hay."
Dairy producers continue because most of them are on dairies their grandfathers
started. They also largely are middle-aged men, 50 years or older, and there are just
few other career options in rural southwest Mississippi.
"That's the reason it's so important we rebuild this industry," Pigott said.
Dairy producers affected by Katrina now are waiting for USDA to implement a dairy lostincome indemnity program that was patterned after a Florida program approved in 2004
that paid producers for lost milk production from storms.
"All were waiting for now is USDA to sign off on it," Pigott said.
As if a hurricane followed by a dry year weren't enough, Army worms started attacking
pastures in the region this summer, leaving vast patches of destroyed forage. Adding
salt to the wound are low milk prices that leave dairymen resentful of the way milk
prices are structured and the hauling fees they have to pay on top of that.
"The biggest challenge is just staying afloat with all these low milk prices," said Al
"Sonny" Boyd, who has been in the dairy business 45 years.
The financial situation of producers could further hurt their pastures this winter, Adams
said. Most dairymen get loans to plant and fertilize rye grass for winter and early spring
grazing, but it may be hard for at least some of them to get financed this fall, he said.
Jay Bacot's dairy parlor was without normal electrical service for 28 days after the
storm. He also lost 14 heifers to respiratory problems because they were not used to
being closely confined over a long period of time, he said. Bacot is down about 60
milking cows since Katrina and some of those cows are producing less because of the
stress and change in their milking routine after the storm.
"They just never came back up after the hurricane," Bacot said.
Bacot can rattle off a litany of daily headaches that have occurred from the lack of rye
grass to army worms that attacked the pasture this summer, not to mention just
needing a new fuel injector on a tractor. Bacot had just put up a new fence before
Katrina hit, but hasn't gotten around to repairing some of them again.
"We'll be rebuilding fences around here for years," he said.
Rural southern Mississippi is filled with forest areas and the shear winds of Katrina were
like "1,000 tornadoes running side-by-side" that sent trees crashing, often destroying
fences or blocking roadways, said Sammy Blossom, executive director of the Mississippi
Cattlemen's Association.
"It will be years to come for the recovery of those facilities, the fences, the barns and
the corrals and things that have taken two or three generations to build and was
destroyed in a night," Blossom said.
Physical damage to some dairy parlors was so extensive in Walthall and other dairy
areas such as Pearl River County that producers had few other options than to sell off
their herds.
Next week, the cattlemen's association will have a day-long meeting in Hattiesburg,
Miss., on hurricane recovery efforts and getting management practices back on track.
"There are just a lot of things that have been left undone in the past year that would be
normal management practices for cattle," Blossom said.
Boyd, 65, just finished a replacement fence this week that had been damaged by the
hurricane. A year earlier, fences and building on his property had been destroyed by a
tornado. But a large stack of lumber, cut trees and a brick foundation also now sit on
one of his pastures. His daughter, who wants to takeover his farm, is building a log
cabin on the place.
"All of the lumber came out of Katrina trees," Boyd said. "We're at least going to get a
house out of it."
Chris Clayton can be reached at chris.clayton@dtn.com
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