Black gold, Texas tea

CELERYVILLE — Jed Clampett hit it big when he struck oil. There is black gold right here in Huron County, but it's not oil. The Ballad of Jed Clampett — a song by Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys — tells the tale of a man who was shooting for food, but instead struck oil. In Huron County, it's the muckland in Celeryville — the "black gold" where local farmers cash in on their crops. Local farmers met recently with U.S. Congressman Bob Latta at the Muck Crops Agricultural Research Station in Willard. The oldest among the Agricultural Research Stations on CFAES's Statewide Campus, the Muck Crops Agricultural Research Station was established in 1948. A group of area producers called the Golden Rule Association purchased and donated 15.5 acres of prime muck soil near Celeryville to the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station for use as an experimental farm. In 2009, new facilities were built, including offices, a workshop, storage areas, a laboratory with digital microscopes, and a new greenhouse. The research station maintains an intensive and relevant research program that addresses the profitability, quality, and safety of fresh vegetable crops grown in both muck and mineral soils in northern Ohio. That includes lettuce, radishes, parsley, green and bulb onions, squash, and other leaf, vine and root crops. Scientists help farmers overcome disease, insect, and weed challenges with new cultural practices and management techniques. The knowledge generated at the station is also invaluable to other muck-crop growers in Ohio, across the U.S., and around the world. Farmers are looking to Latta for help in Washington. They talked about everything from all the recent rain to crops to bugs to insecticides and workers. Farmers on hand were Ben Wiers, Steve Holthouse, Todd Myers and Bruce Buurma. The costs are skyrocketing, Wiers said, and are a concern to the farmers. The local farms get all of their workers on H2A visas, and Wiers said the pay is $17.17 an hour with some getting more on incentives. He said with paying to get the workers here and free housing, the cost is about $20 per hour. That's more than other states pay, and a lot more than what they pay in Mexico, Wiers said. "Give me a level playing field," he said. The farmers all agreed nobody here is willing to do that kind of work in the fields, so they must bring them in from other counties. "We can't get local people to work anymore," Buurma said. "You can't bring people out of Texas anymore. We have to switch to H2A workers. Now we are paying, with all of the expenses, 20 bucks an hour ... it is just killing us." We have around 500 here and another 100 in Florida, Wiers said. He said almost all of his crops are hand-picked, which is a reason for the large workforce. "Everybody (states) is at a different rate," he said. "We are competing with people who have cheaper labor." Bruce Buurma talked about a time when he got local men who just got out of jail sent to him as possible workers. They didn't last long, he said. Most of them didn't show up the first day, and the ones who did, left at lunchtime. "I'm going back to jail ... jail is better than this," one man told Buurma. "I'm not sure how much longer we can go," Wiers said about the rising costs of labor and what he pays in other expenses. "We need to get it under control if we want food grown in America. If we are not concerned about it I guess it doesn't matter. We are struggling." Wiers said his workers put in just under one million hours a year. If costs rise by $1 an hour for workers, he said, that's $1 million out of his pocket. It was over $1 last year. "Our accountants told us it was going to be about $1.2 million in increased costs to us alone," he said. "Sustainable? I don't know." As the farmer's costs go up, the price to the consumer goes up, Wiers said. Wiers said they are here to stay, despite the struggles. "You can sell the land and take the money ... that's not what we are about," he said. "We are farmers. That's what all farmers are in Ohio ... keep it going and pass it from generation to generation." Latta, who grew up in a farming family, shared his stories with the others and promised to do what he could for them in Washington. "I appreciated meeting with local farmers in Huron County at The Ohio State University's Muck Crops Agricultural Research Station and at Bar Lee Jerseys Dairy Farm," Latta said. "With a farm bill expected to be crafted by Congress this year, it's helpful to hear directly from farmers issues currently facing the industry. Latta said he learned how local farmers are growing crops in both muck and mineral soils. "Here, Ohio State is working with farmers to overcome disease, insect, and weed challenges with new cultural practices and management techniques," he said. "At Bar Lee Jerseys Dairy Farm — run by fifth-generation dairy farmers — the Nuhfer family milks 130 jersey cows. It was great to visit and view the various techniques — including robotic milking — used on the farm. "I look forward to more productive conversations with farmers from across Ohio's Fifth District in the coming weeks and months."