Farmers feel effects of drought

By Carol McIntire

Editor

Drought conditions in Carroll County are the worst they have been since the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh updated its record keeping om 2000.

Michael Kennedy of the National Weather Service Pittsburgh office said the drought conditions are sporadic across this part of Ohio, with the northern portion of state receiving rainfall, but Carroll County and most of southeast Ohio in extreme and exceptional drought.

“The bad thing is there isn’t any relief in sight for the next three-to-four weeks,” Kennedy said during a phone interview last week. “This area has been under a high-pressure system for several months and it continues look like it will be that way over the next month or so.”

The weather station located at the Carroll County Airport lists the rainfall for the year at 24.66 inches and the last month at .76 inches.

Kennedy said one of the closest communities with year-to-date rainfall deficit listed is Columbus, which is six inches under normal. Mansfield is seven inches below normal. In comparison, Pittsburgh is six inches above normal. 

According to the latest map provided by U.S. Drought Monitor, the southern-most section of Carroll County is experiencing D3 (Extreme Drought) conditions, the center of the county from west to east is in the D2 (Severe Drought) category and the northern portion is experiencing D1 conditions (Moderate Drought), according to the latest Drought Monitor map released Sept. 12. Neighboring Jefferson County is covered entirely by extreme and exceptional drought, according to the map.

Some of those hardest hits are grain and livestock producers.

“It’s bad,” said Tracy Logan, who, with her husband, Calvin, operate Rolling Ridge Angus Farm, LTD, in southern Carroll County. 

The couple manages a cow-calf operation of about 100 cows on three farms in addition to the home farm. 

“All the creeks have been dried up for a couple months,” Tracy said. “In addition to the creeks, there is one water trough at each farm. We’ve been hauling 1,000 gallons of water a day and can’t keep them filled up.”

She said the rain gauge showed 1.25 inches of rain from the recent Friday night rain (Sept. 6), which generated a trickle of water in the creek, but a few days later, it was dry again. 

“We’ve been feeding hay since mid-July,” she said, adding the hay was earmarked for winter feed.

Adding to the impact, is the lack of hay. Logan said second cutting hay yielded only 60 large round bales and they usually get about 200 each year. 

“We weaned one group of calves a month early,” she explained. “Normally we condition them for a month after weaning, but not this year.”

The Hamilton family, a large grain operation in the county, is just beginning to access damage from the drought.

Steve Pridemore told The Messenger he ran about 20 acres of corn through the combine last week.

“The yield was all over the place,” he said. “It ranged from 50 to 150 bushels per acres.” 

He said the genetics of the crops play a big part in drought resistance as well as when it is planted. 

“We were lucky and got crops in early this year. We are hoping that will help us out.”

He’s conferred with other farmers who lived through the drought of 1988. 

“I was eight years old in 1988 and don’t remember it, but they told me it was worse than this one,” he related. “That was a few weeks ago, and here we are now, several weeks later and still no rain. We really won’t know the full extent of the damage until we get in the fields.”

Help is available

The United States Department of Agricutlure Farm Service Agency offers disaster assistance and loans producers should be aware of.   

Livestock producers who suffered grazing losses for covered livestock due to drought on privately owned or cash leased land may be eligible for the 2024 Livestock Forage Disaster Program. To participate,producers must own, cash or share lease, or contract grow eligible livestock, provide pasture or grazing land to eligible livestock on the beginning date of the qualifying drought, certify that they suffered a grazing loss due to drought, and submit an acreage report to the Farm Service Agency (FSA) for all grazing land for which a grazing loss is being claimed. FSA maintains a list of  counties eligible for LFP and makes updates each Thursday. 

The Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP) provides eligible producers with compensation for above normal costs of hauling water and feed to livestock as well as transporting livestock to forage or other grazing acres. ELAP also assists commercial apiarists who experience a loss of feed due to drought conditions that may need to purchase short-term feed to sustain the honeybees until additional natural feedstock becomes available. 

 FSA also offers a variety of direct and guaranteed farm loans, including operating and emergency farm loans, to producers unable to secure commercial financing. Producers in counties with a primary or contiguous disaster designation may be eligible for low interest emergency loans to help them recover from production and physical losses. Loans can help producers replace essential property, purchase inputs like livestock, equipment, feed and seed, cover family living expenses or refinance farm-related debts and other needs. Additionally, FSA offers several loan servicing options available for borrowers who are unable to make scheduled payments on their farm loan programs debt to the agency because of reasons beyond their control.    

Producers who have risk protection through Federal Crop Insurance or  FSA’s NAP should report crop damage to their crop insurance agent or FSA office. If they have crop insurance, producers should provide a notice of loss to their agent within 72 hours of initial discovery of damage and follow up in writing within 15 days.  

For NAP covered crops, a Notice of Loss (CCC-576)  must be filed within 15 days of the loss becoming apparent, except for hand-harvested crops, which should be reported within 72 hours.   

FSA’s Emergency Conservation Program  (ECP)  can assist landowners with financial and technical assistance to implement emergency water conservation measures.  Emergency haying and grazing of CRP acres may be authorized to provide relief to livestock producers in areas affected by a severe drought. Requests for emergency haying and grazing must be approved by FSA before the activity commences.  

FSA has an online disaster assistance discover tool which allows producers to learn the USDA assistance programs which might fit their operation due to this year’s drought. 

This easy-to-use tool can be accessed at: www.farmers.gov/protection-recovery/disaster-tool

For agricultural producers who have not worked with the USDA FSA office before, make an appointment as the initial meeting with FSA and understand this will take longer than a typical appointment with FSA.  That’s because FSA will need to establish a customer record and a farm record.  FSA must also determine program eligibility.  

Producers need to evaluate the impact on their operation and contact their local FSA county office to schedule an appointment to timely report all crop, livestock and farm infrastructure damages and losses.