Northwest Florida Farmer Sounds Alarm on Rising Costs, Drought as Planting Season Begins
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Santa Rosa County, FL (Newsradio 92.3) -- A Jay farmer is painting a sobering picture of what it's like to work the land in Northwest Florida right now — with fuel prices surging, fertilizer costs climbing, and drought conditions making it hard to even get crops in the ground.
Ryan Jenkins, owner of Jenkins Farms in Jay, joined Pensacola Morning News Friday morning for his monthly farm update. Jenkins says off-road diesel on his farm jumped from $3 dollars a gallon in February to $5.29 — a 76 percent increase he attributes to the conflict in the Middle East. Fertilizer prices have also increased more than 50 percent over the same period.
What makes it especially painful, Jenkins says, is that farmers can't pass those costs on. Unlike other businesses, crop prices are set by the market at harvest time — not by the grower. Jenkins says economic conditions on the farm are as tough as he's ever seen, and there's no room for the kind of cost spikes hitting the industry right now.
Compounding the financial pressure is a significant drought. Jenkins says his fields have received only about six inches of rain since January — roughly two-fifths of the fourteen-point-eight inch ten-year average for the same period. The ground is too hard to plow and too dry to plant. Corn is already in the ground, but peanut and cotton planting is on hold until meaningful rainfall arrives.
On a more positive note, Jenkins praised the Florida Farm Bill signed this week by Governor Ron DeSantis — particularly a provision protecting farmers from any future ban on gas and diesel powered equipment. He also welcomed Santa Rosa County's new voluntary farmland conservation easement program, noting that local investment in the program can leverage significantly larger amounts of state and federal matching funds.
Despite the challenges, Jenkins says he remains grateful to be doing work he loves — and is asking the community to pray for rain.
