Oklahoma Farmers Face Extra Expenses As A Result Of This Winter

By Jeffrey Smith, The News On 6

KELLYVILLE, OK -- It's been a tough winter for eastern Oklahoma farmers and ranchers who have had to endure storm after storm over the last few months.

Some ranchers say this is the wettest winter they've seen in decades and it's starting to take a toll on their bottom line.

The Holcomb's have about 600 acres in Kellyville. When the weather's this bad, most of that land is a big, muddy, mess.

"This is the muddiest year that I've saw in about 15 years," said Tom Holcomb, a rancher.

Tom Holcomb says it's not just the snow. It's all the moisture -- the snow and the mist and the freezing rain. It's a hardship on the livestock, but also on the land itself.

"We'll have to redo our roads and everything. We'll have to, like he said, we're going to have to redo some of pastures, and reseed them. So yeah, it's a burden," said Phyllis Holcomb, a rancher.

The Holcomb's say with the ground this cold and wet, it drives up costs to keep yearlings warm and fed. At one pen, half of the hay is gone. Hay's about $40 per bale.

"When it's not muddy, you don't have the feed loss that you have right now. Feed loss is a big problem right now .You'll lose, probably 25, 30 percent of this hay. They won't get it cause it'll be in the mud," said Tom Holcomb.

But the Holcomb's say rough patches come with the territory and they wouldn't trade this job for the world.

"As a farmer or rancher, you don't think about the costs because our labor is pretty much free. We sacrifice a lot. We sacrifice a lot of hours to do what we do," said Phyllis Holcomb.

The Holcomb's say there is a silver lining to all the nasty winter weather. They say there will be plenty of moisture beneath the soil, which helps the grass grow in the spring.