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How Dry We Are
Arid winter takes big-bucks bite out of Connecticut businesses
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Business New Haven
3/18/2002
By:
Linda Mele
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With only 4,872 square miles of land area and slightly less than 3.5 million people, agriculture is nevertheless a significant industry that continues to make generous economic contributions to Connecticut and its residents.
According to the state's Department of Agriculture (DOAG), the industry boasts approximately 3,900 farms with 360,000 acres involved in some form of farming (animal, vegetable, fruit and animal food) in Connecticut which has a measurable impact on the state's economy.
Much of that is likely to change unless Mother Nature takes pity on the state and sends some much-needed rain or snow.
A spokesperson for the state's Department of Economic & Community Development (DECD) says that in some communities, local water companies have already begun to impose restrictions because of the drought. The adverse weather conditions could make recent droughts pale in comparison.
“My great-grandfather started the maple syrup business in 1940 more to give it as gifts than as a real source of income,” says Mark Hall, co-owner of Sugar Tree Farm in North Guilford.
“Thank God I followed him and started it as a hobby. I could never live on the income it's produced in recent years,” Hall says.
Hall just built a new 30-foot-by-40-foot sugar house and bought an evaporator (syrup is extracted by boiling maple-tree sap to remove as much water as possible). But without sufficient sap, he says he could probably have processed what he tapped in his kitchen.
Hall says that about 50 gallons of sap are needed to produce one gallon of syrup.
“So far this year, I was only able to collect 450 gallons of sap from the 800 taps I have out there,” he explains.
Hall says the temperature of the air must fall below freezing at night and rise significantly above it during the day to encourage the trees to make sap. But that hasn't happened much this winter.
Last year, Hall says, he produced 170 gallons of syrup. So far this year, he's processed just 40 gallons.
Hall also has a part-time landscaping/snow plowing business. “Last winter you could say I slept in my truck, but I haven't been called out much this winter,” Hall says.
Not only will farm revenues be affected, but the ski industry and companies that depend on pleasant weather in the spring, summer and fall and snowy weather in the winter may be decimated. Also affected will be fresh water boating, fishing and swimming and all the ancillary businesses that depend on them.
“Some of the ski areas are reporting that they can't even make snow because the water table is so low,” the DECD spokesman says.
The 80-plus-year-old Connecticut Farm Bureau (CFBA) reports that in 2000, $352.2 million from a total income of $590.6 million derived from crops such as sweet and feed corn, apples, pears, peaches and tobacco.
In 2000, sales of bedding and garden plants produced $52 million, nursery and greenhouse sales hit $177 million; sales of potted annual plants generated $9.7 million; and herbaceous perennial potted plants brought in about $19.2 million.
In addition to affecting the amount of food we grow and the water we consume, drought conditions also affect the trucking industry, retail businesses and prices at the supermarket.
While the per-acre-value-per-farm of property in the state may only be $6,600, the industry is nevertheless big business here - and it may be in for a major hit unless it conditions get wetter.
“If we don't get some snow or a lot of rain this spring, we're all in trouble,” Hall says.
Grown in Connecticut
Though not especially visible to urban and suburban dwellers, Connecticut's agriculture industry is a significant economic driver.
Some farm stats from the CFBA:
• 244 eggs per person per year are produced at state poultry farms.
• Dairy farms produce 260 glasses of milk per year per capita (from a population of one milk cow for every 122 residents).
• The state has one head of cattle for every 51 people, as well as one horse for every 68 people.
• State orchards produce 69 pounds of apples per person each year.
• Eight pounds of sweet corn and two quarts of strawberries are ground per-capita annually here.
• One pumpkin is grown for every three Connecticut residents.
• One Christmas tree is harvested for every eight residents.
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