As temperatures start to creep farther south this winter, Gainesville’s local farmers are also seeing a dip in their profits.
When asked about Gainesville’s farmers market sales due to record-low temperatures, Charlie Lybrand, director of the Union Street Farmers Market, said he is more worried about the effects on his farmers rather than having less customers show up to the market.
“We always have a certain smaller number of customers when the weather is really cold but the biggest effect actually would be on our farmers themselves,” Lybrand said.
Lybrand has personally felt the effects of the cold weather because of his honey business, Land of Flowers.
“It has definitely been more challenging these last couple of years. Last January we had some of the worst losses we’ve ever had. We’ve kind of recovered from that,” Lybrand said.
“To prevent it from happening again, we’ve changed our techniques. We have them sit in full sun almost the whole day now. We fed them a lot heavier in the fall so they have more stores to go through these cold times.”
To avoid losing large margins of profit, farmers are adjusting their methods.
Marvin Graham, owner of Graham Farms, transferred a large portion of his crop to a greenhouse after he lost two full crops at the beginning of the winter season.
This change, however, does not come without cost.
“It takes a lot of time to transfer,” Graham said. “You have to start all over again with the feeding and transplanting. Then it has to grow to maturity to where you can pick them.”
NCL Farms co-owner Connie Ferns said that her husband went out and got a different job because their profits were being so tremendously affected.
“It’s difficult to grow because it’s so erratic and it’s difficult to sell also because it’s very erratic.” she said.
Ferns also said that they began covering their crops in response to the cold.
While this may protect the crops, it also takes more money and more time.
The cold weather might be negatively hitting some farmers’ profits, but others have actually seen an increase in sales.
“From January through March or April I sell [frozen blueberries] and my sales actually pick up during that time of year,” said William Gibbons, owner of Wellborn Farms.
Gibbons attributes his success to changing his crop depending on the season.
“I try to work with the seasons instead of against them,“ he said. “I don’t grow any leafy vegetables or anything like that this time of year. I also sell pumpkins and sweet potatoes…they’re able to stay around until I can sell them all.”
Kurtz and Sons Dairy farm has not been hit too badly either.
“Cold doesn’t really bother a dairy farm because the animals are large and they can take the cold weather,” owner Bubba Kurtz said.
“Our milk is fine this time of year. Cows actually have a much better appetite with the cold weather.”
