Area legislators tour damaged farms; orchard in Stoddard Co.

Corey Noles photo State Rep. Billy Pat Wright, Janet Johns and State Sen. Rob Mayer inspect damage done to a local orchard by the cold temperatures that hit the area in early April.

Record high temperatures in March followed by record lows in April have left many area farmers scrambling to figure out how to make it this year.

In the last week, two area legislators have been touring the area trying to find out what the state can do to help out the displaced farmers.

In a tour of Cates Orchard last week, state Rep. Billy Pat Wright (R-163) and Senator Rob Mayer (R-25) viewed what can only be termed as devastation.

Janet Johns, along with her husband Kevin and children have run Cates Orchard for all of their lives, and the orchard business is all Janet has ever known.

She and her husband took the orchard over from her parents, George and Helen Cates years ago and have had some tough seasons before, but never anything quite like this year.

"You'll lose a crop of apricots pretty often, but this is terrible," Johns said. Their entire crop of peaches, apples, nectarines, pears and plums have been completely destroyed.

Despite those crops, there will still be some strawberries, sweet corn and tomatoes, but those aren't the crops that keep the John's in business.

"I'm 87 and I've never seen anything like this," said George Cates who has been working the orchard all of his life.

Wright and Mayer said the losses seen by the John's have been seen not just in this area, but all over the country.

"This is a disaster of serious proportions," Mayer said. "I guess Mother Nature fooled the plants."

Wright and Mayer are both in contact with the Director of Agriculture, U.S. Representative Jo Ann Emerson, Senator Christopher "Kit" Bond and Senator Claire McCaskill and are trying to work on getting some assistance to those who have been affected.

Rep. Wright has also visited a number of area farms and orchards and said the damage is simply devastating.

"It's really a shame," Wright said. "We're doing everything we can to get [the farmers] the help they need."

He has also visited Kinnaman Orchard north of Bloomfield and St. James Winery who have also experiences complete losses.

Gary Deardorf who operates a farm near Aid has lost as much as 50-75 percent of his wheat crop.

"It seems to have frozen down at the base of the plant instead of just freezing the head," said University of Missouri-Extension agronomist David Guethle.

"Overall we've probably got about 50-percent on wheat in the county," he said. "Some people have had to replant as many as 500 to 1,000 acres."

"I don't think people realize how serious this is," he said.

Wright, who serves as vice-chairman of the House Agriculture committee, plans to visit several other area orchards and farms over the next couple of weeks and is working diligently within the committee to develop a plan of action.

Corey Noles can be contacted via e-mail at cnoles@dailystatesman.com