Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Crop dusters face sky-high costs
Agriculture supply firms share current economic risks
Farmers in the United States have faced rising expenses this year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but secondary agricultural industries like crop dusting companies are also being affected by higher costs.
U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., visited Tommy’s Flying Service on Thursday at Sherrill in Jefferson County to meet with crop dusting companies and pilots to talk about some of the issues facing the industry.
Westerman has visited several different farming and ranching operations in Arkansas this week to see what agricultural workers want in the next federal Farm Bill, which is expected to be reauthorized in 2023.
The Farm Bill, last signed into law in 2018, authorizes federal policies governing food like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, but also supports agricultural workers and provides community food access. It is typically reauthorized every five years.
Westerman said Thursday during his tour that ranchers have told him they are looking for improved drought relief programs, while vegetable farmers are looking for better crop insurance programs. He has also heard feedback about laws regarding forestry management.
But the biggest issues facing the agricultural industry today are fuel and fertilizer costs, Westerman said.
“That’s really what’s gotten the cost of food up,” he said. “It’s really three things: fuel, feed and fertilizer.”
“That’s why we’re seeing very high inflation on food prices, and that affects lowincome and fixed- income families,” Westerman said.
If it affects farmers, it likely affects industry workers who work with farmers, and crop dusting companies are now facing higher costs for aviation fuel and fertilizer, as well as higher plane maintenance costs and issues finding labor.
One load of fertilizer can
cover about 25 acres in 10 minutes in Tommy Anderson’s planes; Anderson, owner of Tommy’s Flying Service, does business primarily in Jefferson and southern Lonoke counties.
Anderson uses Jet A fuel and applies mostly nitrogen fertilizers using his three 500-gallon Thrush airplanes.
“At today’s fuel prices, about 25% of every dollar that we can take in goes back out for fuel,” Anderson said. “We’re faced with the same supply chain issues as anyone else. Keeping the planes maintained has gone up a lot.”
Crop dusting companies like Tommy’s Flying Service have a baseline price for applications, but the owner had to tack on a fuel surcharge because of higher fuel prices.
“I would not be a business if I had not done a fuel surcharge,” Anderson said.
Recent low water levels along the lower Mississippi River in Arkansas haven’t yet impacted crop dusting companies this year but could be problematic in the future.
Agricultural economists have said that the low water levels could make it harder and more expensive this fall to get fertilizer up river for farmers.
“That did not affect us for the 2022 growing year, but for 2023, it probably will be an issue,” said Matt Woolard, owner and operator of Woolard Flying Service at Corning in Clay County, north of Jonesboro.
“With the way things are right now, there’s no way to get fertilizer back up the river … so that’s another concern that we’re going to be facing which will affect input costs,” Woolard said.
“Input prices on fertilizer have more than doubled in 2022 from 2021 and is expected to go up from there,” he added.
Darin Walton, owner of Walton Agwings in Poinsett County, said fewer cotton acres in his area seem to need his company’s crop dusting services this year, which could also be related to drought.
“I’m in northeast Arkansas, and we have more cotton acres this year than we’ve had in several years in that particular area. We were hoping we might get a lot more cotton acres for our flying services,” Walton said. “We’ve not done nearly as many cotton acres this year as we’ve done in the past.”
When it comes to labor, another issue facing crop dusting companies is finding people to work as ground crew.
“A huge issue right now is finding ground crew that will show up at 4 or 5 a.m. in the morning and stay until 9 o’clock,” said Katherine Holmstrom, executive director of the Arkansas Agricultural Aviation Association.
“They have to be trained enough to know how to mix chemicals, to know how to measure everything … you’re looking for a highly trained individuals in rural areas, and it’s a really big challenge finding that skilled labor,” Holmstrom said.