Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumFarm Bankruptcies Already @ 10-Year High; Now NE Farms/Ranches Lose Herds, Farms, Rail To Floods
VERDIGRE, Neb. Ice chunks the size of small cars ripped through barns and farmhouses. Baby calves were swept into freezing floodwaters, washing up dead along the banks of swollen rivers. Farm fields were now lakes.
The record floods that have pummeled the Midwest are inflicting a devastating toll on farmers and ranchers at a moment when they can least afford it, raising fears that this natural disaster will become a breaking point for farms weighed down by falling incomes, rising bankruptcies and the fallout from President Trumps trade policies.
When youre losing money to start with, how do you take on extra losses? asked Clint Pischel, 23, of Niobrara, Neb., whose lowland fields were flooded by the ice-filled Niobrara River after a dam failed. He spent Monday gathering 30 dead baby calves from his familys ranch in this northern region of the state, finding their bodies under huge chunks of ice. Theres no harder business to be in, Mr. Pischel added. But with death and everything else, youve got to answer to bankers. Its not our choice.
Farms filing for Chapter 12 bankruptcy protection rose by 19 percent last year across the Midwest, the highest level in a decade, according to data compiled by the American Farm Bureau. Now, many of those farmers have lost their livestock and livelihoods. The rail lines and roads that carry their crops to market were washed away by the rain-gorged rivers that drowned small towns, forced thousands of evacuations and killed at least three people. Some farmers say they have been cut off from their animals behind walls of water, while others cannot get to town for food and supplies for their livestock.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/us/nebraska-floods.html
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)to say the least. This is prime Caving season in that region. When raising cattle,this is the one thing that will drive the stake through your operation.
Arkansas Granny
(31,518 posts)Boomer
(4,168 posts)And every year it's going to get worse, not better.