Tornado Cuts Macon County Agriculture Industry by $45 Million

Ag Commissioner Ken Givens meets with tobacco farmer Marty Coley, who lost six greenhouses, 11 barns and his own home.

The tornadoes that took 13 lives in Macon County last week also left roughly 45-million dollars worth of damage to the agriculture industry there. State Agricultural Commissioner Ken Givens toured the county today.

High winds leveled hundreds of miles of fence row, leaving some 70 head of cattle roaming the county. Most were sold at auction yesterday here at Browning Stockyard.

One of the largest tobacco producers in the state lost everything – 11 barns, six greenhouses and his own home. Marty Coley raises 8.5-million tobacco seedlings each year in trays and sells them to dozens of other farmers.

“Lost the barn here that I stored all my materials in. That barn had 25-thousaand of those trays. We only recovered 5-thousand. The other 20-thousand were blowed somewhere, we don’t know where.”

Coley is already working to rebuild the greenhouses and hopes to have them ready for planting early next month.

Ken Roark says he may use the storm to get out of the tobacco business. His grain silo and several barns collapsed in the storm. As far as livestock, he’s buried 10 calves and is missing another 20. He says he’s spent the past few years building new fences and barns.

“You’d been better off sittin’ under a shade tree all summer drinkin’ tea. You just look at all the work that was put into it.”

More than 170 farms of the 15-hundred in Macon County were hit by the storms. Ag Commissioner Ken Givens says once the damage is fully assessed, he hopes the state will be able to offer some financial assistance. But he says it won’t be enough to get every grower back on his feet.

 

Ag Commissioner Ken Givens meets with tobacco farmer Marty Coley, who lost six greenhouses, 11 barns and his own home.