AYNOR, SC (WBTW) – As planting season approaches Ronald Rabon’s fields remain inundated with water.
“It’s like a bad dream and you can’t wake up,” said Rabon, owner of Double R Farms.
Rabon is the latest in a line of generations of farmers, but he considered giving it up after the October floods wiped out nearly all of his crops.
“I lost of over $200,000 in actual money that I borrowed,” said Rabon.
He had to refinance his loan and said the only reason he’s still in business is because he couldn’t afford to quit.
“I got a man out here to look at my equipment, but when he got done appraising it, he offered me a third of what it would bring a year ago,” said Rabon.
He says this year could be make it or break it, but soggy soil has made it impossible to prep the fields for planting.
“All we’re doing now is waiting, just waiting; and its putting us farther behind. It’s just going to be a nightmare again it looks like”
1200 acres of Double R Farms would have typically been leveled, prepped and sprayed by now, but every inch remains untouched and Rabon faces an uncertain spring season.
“I just know that we’re starting behind, and when you start behind its hard to catch up,” said Rabon. He’s concerned he may be forced out of business by the finances.
While not everyone is still dealing with wet fields a lot of farmers are still dealing with the impact from the water.
“It was a big loss, we lost 100 percent of everything,” said Miracle Lewis, the co-owner of Home Sweet Farms in Loris.
Home Sweet Farms fields had been underwater up until two weeks ago and while her fields are now dry, Lewis said her winter crops didn’t survive.
“We had a good bit of greens planted this year, it was going to be our largest year, we had collards, cabbage, broccoli, a lot of rooty vegetables and we lost all of it in the flood,” said Lewis.
She didn’t have insurance for her leafy greens because of the small profit margins involved.
“You can’t really afford insurance on something like that until you lose it then you realize you could have afforded insurance more than the loss,” said Lewis.
Lewis says she’s lost untold thousands over the last six months, but is thankful her fields are finally ready for the spring.
She too contemplates shutting down her farm, “many more years like we had this past season, farmers just couldn’t do it anymore. We wouldn’t have local produce, it would all move out west.”
A bill that would provide $40 millions in federal aid for state farmers has passed the House and now heads to the Senate.
The South Carolina farm aid fund would provide assistance to those who suffered a 40% loss in the October floods.
