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Farms, Growers Brace For Second Year Of Drought

File photo/Highlands Today

Rick Green checks a dried patch of grass at the Gulf Kist sod farm east of Sebring in this photo, taken in May. Since then, Green said the 2,300-acre farm lost 75 acres of grass to the drought.

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By Douglas  Carman | Highlands Today

Published: December 14, 2007

SEBRING — As Florida goes into its second winter of a drought that is expected to persist as far as official projections can go, growers are complaining that ongoing water restrictions are leaving their plants parched.

Highlands County Lakes Manager Clell Ford told Highlands Today that Joe Collins, an engineer with Lykes Bros., complained that Lykes could use any water they could get from Lake Istokpoga for some of the crops it was growing. The South Florida Water Management District had shut off the water permits using the lake's canals since October.

"They told me their main concern was not in May or June, but right now," Ford said, referring to some sprouting vegetables they were also growing. Calls to Collins were not returned.

For citrus, the impacts vary. The USDA predicted Tuesday that citrus production would go up 30 percent from the last season, when the drought began. Still, Ray Royce, the executive director of the Highlands County Citrus Growers Association, was hoping the kind of rain a slow-moving tropical storm could deliver.

And without the full canal water access, he anticipates a bigger hit for growers around the entire basin between lakes Istokpoga and Okeechobee. For water-intensive crops like the sugar cane further south, Royce said he knew some farmers weren't going to even bother planting this year since they could not get enough water during the current restrictions.

"People are having to make a decision," Royce said. "There's already a negative impact in the agricultural business."

That was pretty clear to Rick Green of the Gulf Kist sod farm east of Sebring. Over the summer, the humid heat claimed about 75 of the farm's 2,300 acres. While he said that was a small amount, it added up with the slow housing market to put his farm into the red, although he would not put a dollar amount on the losses.

"It just ate the grass up, dried off whatever moisture we had in the grass up," he said. Right now, it's a little better for the farm, only because the cooler air keeps the grass from drying out as quickly.

Green said Gulf Kist is now trying to grow "Ultimate Flora Zoysia," a grass similar to the fairway grass used on golf courses that would grow with less water than the popular Saint Augustine grasses.

Caladiums normally need a large amount of water before the bulbs are picked. Usually this takes place around the month of February. The crop this year was about average, grower Dot Bates said earlier this year. Attempts to reach her and her husband Don Bates were not successful.

The Cows Have It Better

The drought's impacts on dairy farms are less direct, and in some ways it's even a blessing.

Southeast Dairy Cooperative President Joe Wright remembered the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons. Wet weather's bad for milk production, he said, because the soggy fields cause their udders to get caked in mud while it could give the cows feet infections. In both cases, the milk's quality dips.

"That was a nightmare," he said.

The "nightmare" is now the sugarcane industry's.

So when the rain let up in 2006, it was a welcome change for the dairy farmer.

The other extreme hasn't really impacted the dairy farms in the area, at least not yet. The farms within the cooperative have been able to keep below the regulations using recycled water, and Wright said the grasses have been in good shape.

But the drought isn't necessarily helpful, either. Wright's concerned the long-lasting re-strictions will pit dairy farmers and Florida's agricultural economy against its home owners and other industries as they demand the limited water supply.

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