Wednesday, May 15, 2013

"I Killed Her Garden!"

There is a really good discussion in the Cafe where the farmer, a Cajun member from Louisiana admits he killed the neighbor's garden with spray drift.  Although we are trained and certified and work hard not to spray in any wind, sometime that is all impossible and we get a little drift that dings, damages or destroys a garden.  Thankfully this is a rare occasion.

"Two weeks or so back, I was trimming a Milo field, atrazine and clarity and I was unfortunately not aware of the wind as I should have been. I smoked the tomatoes, melons, radish, and a host of other veggies. I know they don't have $100 in it, time is one thing, but it is worth only so much.

What do I offer? I am sure one of you have killed a garden, whether you know it or not.

What would you do?"

There are many replies and the way farmers address these issues is basically be sure to take care of your neighbor!  We already have enough challenges!

"If it was my wife's garden, she wouldn't be happy with a $1,000. Those gardens mean a lot to some people, so you can't just put a store price value on it. I sure hope you don't insult the gal by offering her a couple hundred.

If she smoked a couple acres of your corn, would settle for a hundred an acre? I'm sure that's all the seed cost you.  Do the right thing and pay dearly. I'm sure she'd rather have the garden than the money, no matter how much it is. Actually, be glad it wasn't my wife's garden, you'd be as dead as the garden."

Then JK tells us the rest of the story.  "We met, today and state ag drift man came also. She cannot come up with a figure. First, she is pissed about me dinging her Chinese tallow trees taking over her pasture, that most folks want dead.

Next, she blamed her mange infested dogs hair loss on me. This house is in deplorable order, and I promise you, 9 times out of 10 you pass by the local video poker joint, her truck is there.

Too ignorant to reason with, made an offer, state man said I was more than fair, offered an open ticket at local greenhouse, but she wants money, not replacement. Wants to buy cigs, meth, and poker.

So, I made my offer, she has not a lot of recourse, and I gave her until Wednesday at 4 to have a number, or I was walking away.

It really is worth only so much, and I can stomach dealing with these extraordinarily ignorant folk only so long, I can apologize only so much, it is what it is, and lets move on.

She also refuses to take a check, only cash. I want proof of payment.  So, there you have it"

Be careful around those gardens, fellas...

Ed




7 comments:

  1. That's a hard question, but what is hard is arriving at a fair figure. What she does with the money is really irrelevant. When you pay for damages you caused, there can be no strings attached. You are paying compensation and as it is her money, she can spend it as she likes. I'm guessing she lives in a trailer. Perhaps the solution is to raise a few hogs near the property line, as an encouragement to hitch up & leave. I wouldn't consider such a person a "neighbor". At least by my definition. I doubt she would be satisfied at any figure. Maybe buy her a few lottery tickets to sweeten the deal.

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  2. That is a very, very good point. I have been on the Extension end of those negotiations and it was not easy at all. My custom app has dinged our tomatoes two times but LuAnn was forgiving.

    Ed

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  3. I guess I am old enough to remember the days when farmers actually shut down the sprayer when it got too windy to spray. Seems that nowadays there is no such thing as "too windy to spray" if you own a high clearance sprayer.

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  4. Yes Ralph drift problems seem to be not decreasing at the least. You think we could be more careful!

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    1. Ed we try to be really careful as not just homeowners but we have several large greenhouse operations near crop fields and if you had a bad kill there you could do many million $ damage. When spraying wheat we ask managers too close there vents and really want to spray with a little wind blowing away from them . Guys here that have a second ins. claim for spray drift get that coverage dropped from there policy. Ed hope your planting is going good as here in SW ONtario we have had no real precipitation for 3 weeks and most guys will be done by the weekend. The SRW really needs rain-regards-kevin

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  5. That's a great answer, Kevin. We are still dancing around rain showers here though there is a tiny bit of corn up. I have seen no soybeans up which is a real bummer for me but we have some peas and green beans up in the garden. Amazing the rain has just been south of you! Basically nothing is planted in my region but the wheat looks pretty good and I can report little Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus or other disease this morning!

    Ed

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