Standby Generators Help Farmers

Local Indiana news reports say Indiana sheep farmer Duane Sickels is glad to have standby generators on hand as lambing season has coincided with power outages.

His sheep produced 115 new baby lambs recently including almost 20 born the day of an ice storm. The power has been off for days. American Electric Power, the local provider told Sickels it could be several more days before the farm's power is restored.

Sickels stated, "We will have to look for more generators if (power's) not on by the end of the week. We won't have heaters for our waterers without power. A pregnant ewe will drink a couple of gallons of water a day."

Because of the power outage finding generators nearby could be hard. Nearby generator suppliers are sold out of generators and some farmers have been going to Madison, Ind., and Cincinnati, Ohio, to find them. Most of the Honda generators that Liberty dealer Duane Marker had in stock went to Randolph County, location of the outage, said an employee.

Marker reports "We're still getting calls for generators. We will get more by the end of the week, hopefully, unless some other disaster happens. A lot of (Honda's) generators are going to India to help with the tsunami effort." Farmers are usually prepared for power failures and most already had some type of generator on site, a Randolph County extension educator said.

Matt Dirksen's used a 55,000-watt generator to keep his 160-cow dairy going until the power came back at his farm. The generator cost $6,000 and ran the entire farm, including the house.

Dirksen had a slight problem with his generator's amperage meter not working.

Sickels says "I have no complaints with the Coleman generator," he said. "It's run since Wednesday evening."