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Government officials tour local farms

By Monica Rix - email

MADISON COUNTY, AL (WAFF) - Government officials piled into a big tour bus Thursday morning and set out to check out local farms in Madison County.  Their mission: to learn as much as they could about local agriculture.

From corn and cotton, to soy and strawberries, farmers in the area have their hands full.

"We've grown. Agriculture is pretty much the No. 1 business in Alabama", said state Sen. Paul Sanford. 

Sanford was one of about 70 people who went on the tour, seeing the business firsthand. One stop on the tour was Noel Brown's 2200-acre farm.

Brown said his farm started as a 250-acre operation, expanding significantly over the years.  But not every farm has had such luck.

"There's not nearly as much land to farm. A lot of this land went into housing," said Brown.

Brown said the weather hasn't made the job much easier either. Overall, Brown said harvests have fared well, but the rain has drowned out a big portion of his cotton crops. 

There's no word yet on the actual extent of the damage, but Brown estimates 30 to 40 percent of the harvest was lost. Sanford said he sympathizes.

"It has been a unique year. We went through drought conditions to a period of rain and right now, farmers are experiencing difficulties harvesting. If they don't get it out soon, they could be in trouble," Sanford said.

But farmers are optimistic and so are officials. For now, they're just hoping to soak up as much information as they can on what these farmers have to offer.

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