Florence destroys Pender County farm, help comes from across country

BURGAW, NC (WWAY) — The winter is usually a slow time for most farmers, but one Burgaw farmer said this past winter was especially hard.

Buron Lanier says the winter season is actually a pretty big feeding season for his cattle. One group from the Midwest is spending the week in Burgaw to help get the farm back on track.

“We just never catch up without an effort like this to come and get us back on our feet,” Lanier said. “All our grasses were drowned and a lot of them were underwater for several days. That was our winter feed and the water killed it. drowned it. And we didn’t have any winter feed.”

Lanier says more than a hundred acres of land on his beef and cattle farm in Burgaw was completely underwater after Hurricane Florence.

“We have about 130 acres of timber here on the farm that we graze cattle in, and we had a lot of downed trees,” Lanier said.

Lanier says that between downed trees and destroyed grass, the recovery process could take two years. This week they have back up though, all the way from Illinois.

“When there’s a hurricane, there’s a disaster and devastating damage, and then it’s forgotten. But the people that are recovering from these hurricanes, it goes on for months and months, and even years,” Jerry Druhan said.

Druhan and The Fellowship of Christian Farmers have helped farmers all over country. His team is spending the week helping Lanier.

Lanier says the damage will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. He says this is an opportunity to rebuild stronger.

“This is a time to correct our mistakes, rebuild with what knowledge we know now and to be able to have a better operation in the future I think, after this recovery effort,” Lanier said.

Lanier says the progress they have made this week is more than he ever could have done on his own. He says they hope to get some funding from federal and state organizations soon.