Owensboro Agri-Tour

The suffering economy, fuel costs, and a windstorm. Its been a roller coaster summer for Tri-state farmers this year. But the Owensboro chamber of commerce celebrated the agricultural community with its 5th annual Agri-tour. During the event, people around the farm lands of owensboro and daviess county explained the importance of the industry to Owensboros economic growth. Jerry Knott and his family run a farm in Sorgho. He says people who think farming is holding up ok during this economic crunch are dead wrong. "Going into this year, probably scariest year in my lifetime as a farmer, input costs are astronomical and we cant control it." Clint Hardy is an extension agent for Daviess County. He says corn is on the ground from last months windstorm and thats adding to the already costly harvest. "It costs hundreds of dollars to operate these combines everyday and now its taking twice as long " That also means twice the fuel. The price of corn *has* been higher this year but its dropped three dollars since July-- a discouraging sign for farmers. Jody Wassmer is the president of the greater Owensboro chamber of commerce. He says its during tough times like these Owensboro needs to appreciate what farmers do for the city. "2.29 it sometimes gets forgotten by the people in Owensboro who arent around it when in fact it brings so much into the economic development....." Thats 70 million dollars worth. Jerry Knott says the long harvest is already having a domino effect on the agricultural community. It means beans will be harvested later and itll affect the wheat crop as well. These farmers say it would have been much worse if wed had a rainy september. Theyre hoping it stays dry until the harvest is over in the next two weeks.