One of the most common forms of roadway and field edge abuse occurs when farmers plow their fields literally to the edge of the roadway ditch. This kind of plowing destroys the edge barrier which keeps fertilizer from running off into the watershed and which keeps silt from flowing from the field. Throughout Franklin County, much fine topsoil is annually lost through edge abuse and neglect. This soil fills in the roadway drainage ditches resulting in costly removal and much of the soil makes its way into streamways where it is eventually deposited in the the Woods or Tims Ford reservoirs. On farms where livestock is no longer grown or where cattle are no longer allowed to feed in the field through the winter, farmers have determined that the old fencerows are no longer needed and have removed them.
Removal of the fences allows the farmer to plow two or three additional rows in the fields. In the extremely competitive, risky, and variable grain markets, the increase in productivity of three additional rows on the edge some long fields might seem to make the difference in whether the field is profitable or not. Certainly it is argued that the farmer needs to make every possible dollar on his crop. Two of the three additional rows the farmer plows are not a problem. The last row, however, the one that destroys the protective edging of the field and allows the soil to fall and wash from the field is the problem. It is this last row that costs not only the people of the county tax money used for road maintenance but also costs the farmer in lost productivity due to soil loss and increased fertilizer costs. The plowing of this last row offsets the profits of the other two rows and creates a widely felt environmental problem.
There are two ways to conceptualize this problem: One is to ask, how much is this row of corn worth? In other words, how much corn grows in a row and what will the farmer get for that corn when it is sold [less, of course, the costs of producing the corn]. The other way is to ask: how much does a row of corn cost? That is, beyond the worth of the row of corn to the farmer, what are the costs to the farmer and to the county of the last row of corn which destroys the edge that protects both the field and the adjacent road?
The worth of a row of corn is directly related to the productivity of the field and the market value of the corn. In 1995, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office, Franklin County farmers produced an average of 130 bushels of corn per acre at an average market value of $3.50 per bushel. An acre of corn then was worth on average $455. An acre of corn along a road would create an edge of 208.71 feet along the road. If we assume that one row of corn occupies 1.5 feet [18 inches], then the row encumbers 1.5x208.71 of the field or .72% of the acre. Using this as a multiplier against the total worth of the acre of corn, we can calculate that a row of corn in a one acre field is worth $3.28. If the field were a quarter of a mile long, the row of corn would be worth $20.74. By itself, $20.74 is no longer a fair sum of money. But to put this in perspective, if the field were not only a quarter of a mile long, but a quarter of a mile deep, it would hold about 39.36 acres and the value of the corn crop would be $18,058.95. $20.74 is .1% of $18059.
Now, this $20.74 for one row in a quarter mile long field is not pure profit that goes directly into the farmer's pocket. Out of the $20.74 must come the cost of seed, plowing, machinery, fertilizer--and taxes. If we assume the excess of earnings above overhead to be about 30%, the farmer will actually see as profit about $6.22 from this quarter-mile long row of corn. The value to the farmer of a row of corn is about $6.22.
The off-the-farm costs of this row of corn are harder to calculate, but we can use as a figure the simple cost per hour of road equipment to repair the drainage ditches filled with the lost soil from the field. Road grading equipment on average costs about $75 per hour of operation. The cost of a lost edge which results in erosion is a $6.22 profit for the farmer and a charge of $75 times the several hours it takes to repair the road. This is a selfish and false economy that increasingly pressures public agencies to maintain roads, culverts, and ultimately lakes and then to convert farmland into residential land in order to pay the tax bill of maintenance. Stealing the edge is in the long run simply suicidal farming. The profit stolen from the right of way not only produces an environmental problem but eventually comes full circle to haunt farming itself through destructive taxation. What is the cost of a row of corn? More than the farmer or the people can afford to pay.
