Elixir is defined as a magical or medicinal potion.
In the hearts and minds of Allen County farmers thats exactly what this weeks rainfall, ranging to better than 3 inches in some locales, was, a magical potion. The rain came with enough force to restore the levels of many stock water ponds that conspicuously had been dropping, and kick-started corn, most of which had been planted and was up a few inches, and soybeans, just starting to break out.
Weve several wonderful industries in the county Gates Corporation, Russell Stover Candies, Monarch Cement and B&W Trailer Hitches quickly come to mind but it is agriculture, when all involved are taken collectively, that determines just how robust the economy will be in any given year. And, the crops and livestock U.S. farmers raise are beyond important in feeding Americans and many other peoples in the world.
The Kansas Farm Bureau likes to point out that one Kansas farmer feeds another 155 people (that total may be even greater) and it is an undisputed fact that 88 percent of Kansas land is devoted to crops, raising or finishing livestock or has the potential in a given year to supplement either form of food production. Thats 46 million acres in Kansas alone.
In Allen County 650 farms, from those of hundreds of acres to others with more modest opportunities to produce, keep 245,000 acres in production. When wheat, corn, soybeans and beef enter the market system, they generate about $50 million. The common factor for figuring how important income generation is generally is 7, meaning farming creates $350 million in transactions in Allen County alone.
The income line includes energy production, both renewable and fossil-based. Within two years, probably less, that facet of the agricultural economy will get a huge boost when the 200-megawatt EDP Renewables wind farm in the northeast part of the county goes online. NextEra, another energy company, expects to have a second wind farm straddling the Bourbon-Allen counties line in the southern parts of the two counties soon afterward.
While that is window dressing, albeit a very lucrative form, the real impact of agriculture in Allen County is the production of grain and beef. Consequently, the importance of this weeks generous rainfall.
FARMERS have to have the nerves of a riverboat gambler and the faith of a saint, when a single storm that carries high winds or hail or both can destroy what has taken days and weeks, even months, to create.
Drought also is a fear that finds harbor in every farmers mind.
So, when they come to town after a nice shower in May even more importantly in July and August glad-handing and with a smile on their faces, it behooves us all to be congratulatory and rejoice in the good fortune that Mother Nature has bestowed. In a multitude of ways its just as important to those who hang their hats in town as it is to those whose very livelihoods depend on the forces of nature.
Bob Johnson
