Farmers in Owensboro have reported that even though COVID-19 brought steep uncertainty to the marketplace, work on the farm locally has remained the same.
“It doesn’t affect us as closely as you think it would other people,” said Joan Hayden, president of the Daviess County Farm Bureau. “It’s kinda like business as usual because you’re up at 6 o’clock. You’re out there. You’re working all day.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has identified food and agriculture as a critical industry. This means businesses that are part of the food supply chain are not forced to close during the pandemic.
“As far as everyday living here on the farm, being able to get what we need to do the job we need to do, I’ve not seen an effect yet,” said Aaron Walker, another local farmer.
Walker, who’s in the cattle business, said he was able to make a slight profit on cows during auction because of the demand locally for ground beef after COVID-19 hit.
“The ground beef side of it, people are just scared they’re not going to have enough so they have bought, bought, bought and we’re seeing a little bit of result because of it,” he said. “Everything else is running as normal.”
Local farmer John Kuegel said the dairy aisle had been empty at the grocery stores because people’s buying habits had changed also due to the same fear of short supply rather than any direct effect COVID-19 has had on farmers.
Kuegel said supply will catch up as goods move through the supply chain from farm to processor to the distributor and then market as scheduled.
“Work on the farm doesn’t stop,” he said. “It’s ongoing. It doesn’t matter which crop or which animal, we’re working. The farmers, we’re working seven days a week to make sure it doesn’t matter what our pay price is the milk is leaving the farms.”
The role that farmers play during the COVID-19 pandemic is probably as important as healthcare professionals but people often won’t recognize it, Hayden said.
Without farmers, the aisles at the grocery stores would remain empty and there would be no food to feed an entire population.
She said the silver lining for farmers in the outbreak of the coronavirus is probably that it opened some people’s eyes to how important food is and where it comes from.
“I think throughout this whole coronavirus, people have come to realize how important the food is. They’ve gone into stores and they have been empty,” said Hayden. “We’re providing what we can, what we’ve always done but people just didn’t realize it. I hope through this that it will grow into a healthy admiration for what we do.”
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For the latest information and data on COVID-19 in Kentucky visit kycovid19.ky.gov or dial the Kentucky state hotline at 800-722-5725.
For the latest health guidelines and resources from the CDC, visit their website here.
