Farmers adapt to survive

For 45 years Craig Mentzer has been farming his land in Geneva, an unincorporated town in northwestern Allen County. He’s endured floods, he’s weathered several droughts, but with 2019 just past the halfway mark he can already say this year has been his most challenging.

Frigid temperatures early in the year, followed by a historically wet spring and a dry, hot summer, to go with a Mexico-Canada trade deal that can’t seem to reach the House floor, all leave Mentzer scratching his head about what is on the horizon.

“Every year has its own unique set of challenges. No year is the same.This is one I want to get through with. I hope the worst is over. We have had numerous obstacles. The winter weather was very hard for calving, then the floods,” Mentzer said. He pauses for a moment before saying,” And then there is always the government.”

The flood took its toll on one of Mentzer’s pastures. He rotates three pastures for his cattle to graze on eight days at a time. This year he has been limited to two pastures, with one of his fields sitting under water for well over a month. His other two fields are running bare because of  excess use. Spring floods took Martin Creek, which usually sits at about six inches at this time of year and currently sits at about six feet, and turned his property into a lake. Dead leaves on trees show that water rose in some areas up to 10 feet high.

There is a clear divide on Mentzer’s property. One narrow strip with high flowing native grasses like rye and fescue intertwined with clover, perfect for grazing cattle. The other area is roughly the size of 10 football fields. This section is full of thick weeds littered with occasional splotches of driftwood washed up from the creek. Mentzer hopes the native grasses return to the entire pasture.

On this mid-July day during a break from baling hay, Mentzer and helper Andrew Snavely are out repairing fences that were washed away by flood waters or weighed down by driftwood. Snavely has worked for Mentzer for 12 years and has been putting in long hours in recent months. While the fence keeps his cattle where they need to be, it also served as an unintentional protective barrier for his and neighbor Ryan Speck’s fields from the floating wood. Logs out in the middle of a cornfield would be quite a nuisance. It would also wreak havoc on a combine.

Mentzer and Snavely move fast in the summer heat, using each break walking from one spot to the next to wipe sweat from their brows.

After getting fence put up Mentzer hops in his vehicle and drives farther down the creek. He observes a 40-foot stretch of fence that literally had the ground beneath it washed away.

“We actually moved this fence earlier in the spring. I remember saying at the time, ‘this will not have to be done again in my lifetime.’ But here we are. We just did it too soon I guess,” Mentzer said.

“THE KEY to farming is being able to adapt. Adapt and get through each new situation. There are so many things college doesn’t teach you about being a farmer. So many things have to be learned out in the fields on the job,” Mentzer said. “I went to college, but it didn’t teach me the things that I have learned out here. You gain a lot of knowledge by talking to the old farmers. They have been through a few floods that were worse than this one.”

Mentzer said the flood of 2007 reached the same level on his property, but this time around the water remained on his land much longer.

Mentzer’s crops are looking good despite less than optimal conditions. This is where his ability to adapt to new circumstances serves him well. Several hurdles still need to be cleared.

“Except for our corn being late, everything else looks pretty good. For now that is. Half of our corn was flooded out, so it is a month later than normal,” he said.

In a normal season, Mentzer likes his corn to be planted by April 20. This year, it was replanted on June 4, the last day to plant for crops to be insured.

“We replanted then after the water stood on it forever. We planted a lot of beans before we planted the corn because the ground was too wet. The early corn looks good because we got some rain. The late corn actually looks good, but I don’t know when it is going to pollinate. We don’t know whether it will mature before the frost. I think we will have stuff to harvest, though,” he said.

A typical season has farmers harvesting corn from Sept. 1 to Oct. 1, then harvesting beans. This year Mentzer plans to harvest corn, switch to beans and then go back and harvest more corn.