Photos courtesy of Swann Farms
Owings, MD – Joe-Sam Swann is in his eleventh year as a farmer since returning to his family farm. In that time Joe-Sam hasn’t “ever experienced a catastrophic loss of crops” like he did this year.
After speaking with Joe-Sam, catastrophic may not even accurately describe the bad hand mother nature dealt Swann Farms this year. “It’s hard to put a monetary figure on it but it’s tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of crops.” Crops in which Joe-Sam and everyone else on the farm invested time, energy and resources. “It’s not just losing the crop, it’s losing all of the money you put into the crop,” he said.
The National Weather Service web site shows that Calvert County received 10-15 inches of rain in the month of July, with some patches in the northern end, receiving 15-20 inches. This rainfall in combination with an “extremely wet spring” is responsible for the farm’s losses. Many farms have insurance to cover this sort of unexpected weather but Swann Farms is a produce farm, making their situation a little more difficult. “Unlike grain farming or grow crop farming, it’s really hard to find an insurance policy that’s really worth it to me so I don’t have crop insurance.” Joe-Sam explained that his farm is more of a “niche-type farm” and that his fruits, vegetables and berries get planted throughout the season in small batches. This makes it harder to insure because he “might lose one or two plantings a season.”
Adding insult to injury, the rainy weather almost washed away a portion of the farm’s road. The Swann Farms Facebook Page chronicled the struggle of keeping the road intact and the pictures, as unbelievable as they are, speak for themselves. With the farm in a time of need, the community was able to pull together and prevent the road from eroding away. Scaggs Site Development, a local excavating company, played a pivotal role in saving the road. “I called the owner and he had his equipment out here within the hour. Without him, I am 100 percent positive that we would have lost our farm road.” Joe-Sam sites the community coming to the farm’s aid as the only real silver lining to the situation, stating that the farm “did have a lot of crop loss and there’s just no getting that back.”
As devastating as this growing season has been, Joe-Sam understands that it’s a part of the risk that accompanies being a farmer. “I’m not a gambler but what I do professionally is a gamble. Anytime you’re putting seeds in the ground you’re hoping everything falls in line and that the seed has optimal conditions to produce whatever you’re trying to grow. You’re working with mother nature and she’s unpredictable.”
Swann Farms had to close to the public for two days in order to repair the eroding road—working almost 24 hours a day to do so—but they are back open and ready for business. The farm allows customers to pick their own strawberries at the farm and it also has a wide variety of produce available for purchase at the North Beach Farmers Market Friday nights.
For more information visit the Swann Farms web site
Contact Jerold Massie at staffwriter@thebaynet.com
