Tag Archives: drought

Watermelon Harvest Underway in Crisp County After a Rollercoaster 2026 Growing Season

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Cordele, GA |

Down in Crisp County — also known as watermelon country — crews are busy in the fields harvesting fresh melons that will be supplying stores across Georgia and the country. Getting to this point, however, was no easy task, as the 2026 growing season proved to be a rollercoaster ride for producers.

“This year’s growing season started out with severe drought and warm days — watermelons really took off. Then we slowed down with some cooler days, still dry. And then all of a sudden, all the rain just came at one time,” said Jacob Jackson of Jackson Farms. “It’s been tough. Real sporadic weather altogether. Seen it all.”

THE DROUGHT WASN’T THE PROBLEM — THE DOWNPOUR WAS

For Jackson, the prolonged dry stretch actually wasn’t the worst part for his melons. With drip irrigation running through his fields, he was able to manage the lack of rain. The real damage came when the dry stretch broke all at once.

“As far as the drought, we can water these melons — I have all these watermelons on drip right here. Disease pressure is non-existent, everything goes very smoothly. Obviously input costs with irrigating go up, but what we don’t need is a watermelon to go through a whole dry stage and then all of a sudden get hit with ten inches of rain at one time,” Jackson said. “It’s just not prepared for that. It can bring the vines down, disease pressure can hit you — wet feet especially. A watermelon doesn’t need that much water. It just drowns out at that point.”

HARVEST SEASON: SMOOTH, BUT NOT SIMPLE

After a tough growing season, harvest has been fairly smooth — though it came with its own set of challenges once the rains finally arrived mid-season.

“Harvest season has been going pretty smooth. Obviously when the rain came, it made it tough dragging buses left and right, really rutting up fields, making a mess,” Jackson said. “But then it finally dried off and we’ve had a smooth go lately. The main thing about the heat is that as soon as it warms up after a big rain like that, the vines just want to melt and everything tries to get ripe at one time. Then it’s go, go, go — you have no choice but to put buses in the field and get your product out.”

THE SKILL BEHIND EVERY MELON

Getting that product out of the field, though, is no small task. Harvesting watermelons is done entirely by hand and depends on a workforce that truly knows what they’re doing.

“Watermelons are always going to be labor intensive — there’s no way around it. When you go into a watermelon field, you hope to get about three to four cuttings per field. You’ve got two crews: cutters and loaders,” Jackson said. “The cutters are really the most important contributors to this farm, because they determine what good quality goes into each and every bin that gets sold to consumers. Training a cutter — they’ve just got a knack for it. They know what they’re looking for. They can see a watermelon and know it’s ripe.”

For Crisp County’s watermelon producers, 2026 has been a season that tested just about everything — but as the bins fill and the trucks roll out, the harvest is proof that Georgia’s watermelon country knows how to weather the storm.

By: John Holcomb

Burke County Brothers at Idlewood Farms Say 2026 Has Felt Like Survival, Not Farming

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Waynesboro, GA |

For Robert and Sid Prescott, two brothers who farm together in Burke County, the 2026 growing season has felt less like farming and more like survival. The Prescotts own and operate Idlewood Farms — an 850-acre Bermuda grass and beef cattle operation known for producing top-quality forage. But this year has tested them in ways they’ve never been tested before.

“Going back to last year, we lost our last cutting of hay — when it got dry in August, we didn’t even get that last cutting. Then we came into April this year with no rain, very little rain in March,” said Robert Prescott. “You start getting just a tiny bit of rain the first of May and see the grass start greening up. You fertilize, and you’re looking at the hay and it’s finally getting right. Well, then we get one more rain and it’s like, ‘Oh, we’re going to have the perfect cutting now.’ Then the last nine days of May, we had nine inches of rain. We had standing water in these fields. We couldn’t even get in them to make hay.”

A SEASON THROWN OFF COURSE

That drastic shift — from bone dry to underwater — threw off everything from cutting schedules to quality. A farm that normally aims for four strong cuttings of hay per season is now far behind pace.

“We try to get four good cuttings — we’d like to see five, but we really shoot for four. This year, we’re still in cutting one, so the whole timeline is off,” Robert said.

“We’re at least twenty days behind schedule — probably about twenty-two days, honestly. Our grass is getting longer, our quality is going to be lower because it’s going to be older hay,” said Sid Prescott. “We might get three cuttings this year, and our numbers are going to be short. We know that already.”

RISING COSTS, FLAT PRICES

That shortfall puts the Prescotts in a tough spot — not just with their own cattle herd, but with the customers who depend on them for hay. And rising input costs are squeezing margins on a product whose price hasn’t budged in years.

“Our fertilizer costs are up about thirty-one percent this year across the board, and our fuel costs are up about sixty percent from last year,” Sid said. “It’d be like spending three times as much money to sell a cake for the same price. Our hay prices haven’t moved in the last seven years. Our inputs are rising and our crop values are the same — so we’re going to start losing money if we can’t produce more yield.”

QUALITY BEFORE QUANTITY

Despite the pressure, the Prescotts say cutting corners isn’t something they’re willing to consider. For them, quality is a promise they’ve made to their customers — and themselves.

“We’ve got to stay true to ourselves. We’re only going to sell our customers products that we know are desirable,” Sid said. “We’re not going to sacrifice quality over quantity. We’re going to try to remain very optimistic and know that we’re selling a product that we would want to use ourselves.”

For Robert, the only way to get through a year like this is to keep moving forward — even when so much feels beyond their control.

“When you can’t control what’s going on, you’re just having to roll with the punches. Well, this year feels like you’re dodging bullets. So many things are out of our control,” he said.

For the Prescotts, the fields will dry out, the cuttings will come, and the season will eventually end. But 2026 has made clear just how much farmers can be asked to absorb before a single bale of hay ever leaves the field.

By: John Holcomb

UGA Expert Warns Georgia Cattle Producers: Drought Is Threatening Herd Nutrition This Calving Season

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Tifton, GA |

Over the course of several months, much of Georgia has been gripped by drought conditions that have left pastures stressed and hay stocks stretched thin. Now, heading into the heat of summer, that pressure is landing squarely on the shoulders of cattle producers. According to experts, the concern isn’t just the drought itself — it’s the timing.

“If we don’t have rain, we won’t have grass. If we don’t have grass — the main source of feed for cows — it’s not there. So we have to look for other things to supplement or feed the cows,” said Pedro Carvalho, Beef Cattle Specialist with the University of Georgia. “We need to be watching not only the amount but also the quality. If you don’t have rain, the first thing that happens is we won’t have grass — and after that, the grass that is there is going to get worse. So we need to look for strategies and opportunities to feed hay, to feed byproducts.”

THE WORST TIME FOR A FEED SHORTAGE

For many producers, spring calving is either underway or just wrapping up — making this one of the most nutritionally demanding stretches of the year. Carvalho says the drought cut into forage quality and availability at exactly the wrong time, and if producers aren’t careful, the consequences can carry over well into next year.

“What we want is to have that cow pregnant again — to produce a calf every year. In order to do that, we have to make sure those cows have enough nutrients to not only produce milk for the calf they just had, but also maintain good body condition and enough weight to rebreed, get pregnant, and produce another calf next year,” Carvalho said.

TWO THINGS EVERY PRODUCER SHOULD DO NOW

Carvalho says every cattle producer should be doing two things right now: assessing the physical condition of their cattle, and taking stock of what feed and forage they have available — and more importantly, its quality.

“Assess the body condition of your cows during calving, because that’s one of the most important times to do that — and it’s going to determine the success of getting them pregnant again,” Carvalho said. “The other thing is to test what you have available to feed. Not just how much, but what do you have? Test your forage, test your feed, test your byproducts before you feed them to the cows.”

DON’T OVERLOOK WATER QUALITY

Beyond forage, Carvalho says producers should also be keeping a close eye on water sources. Even as some drought conditions have eased with recent rainfall, water quality remains a concern that can easily be overlooked.

“Right now, a lot of cows may have only a pond as their only source of water. Are we checking that as well — and the quality of it?” Carvalho said. “As ponds get shallow, the water is going to get dirtier and dirtier, and the quality is not the same. We need to make sure we are giving the cows enough water, and good quality water.”

For producers looking for additional guidance, Carvalho points to the UGA Beef Team’s online resources at beef.caes.uga.edu, where a range of tools and recommendations are available to help cattle producers navigate drought conditions and nutritional management through the summer months.

By: John Holcomb

Georgia Blueberry Growers See Bumper Crop as Drought Boosts Quality

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Manor, GA |

Georgia’s blueberry growers are having a season worth celebrating. Both the quantity and quality of this year’s harvest have exceeded expectations — and surprisingly, the historically dry conditions that have plagued much of the state’s agriculture this year deserve much of the credit.

“This year’s berries look really good. Honestly, this is some of the best quality we’ve had in years,” said Alex Cornelius of Cornelius Farms. “Mother Nature has been good to us. It’s been a drought, and during a drought, the quality is always better. When it’s wet — particularly in South Georgia where it’s humid — fungus, disease pressure, pest pressure, everything is just worse. And blueberries, if you get too much rain, they’ll split and cause problems.”

DODGING THE FREEZE

Growers also caught a break on the weather front when a damaging February freeze that hit Florida farms hard largely spared operations further north in Georgia.

“The February first freeze hit Florida so hard, and it did affect some farms with early varieties that were sticking out pretty bad,” Cornelius said. “But we were blessed that it did not affect our farm. The later freeze that came along was minimal.”

A MUCH-NEEDED BOOST AFTER HELENE

The timing of this bumper crop couldn’t be better. Many growers in the region are still working to recover financially from the devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene — and for Cornelius Farms, that recovery has been a years-long process.

“Helene took out a hundred and twenty acres of our production. We first planted those plants, and then in 2022 they got wiped out with Helene and we went back and replanted them again,” Cornelius said. “So we’re four or five years into no return on that hundred and twenty acres. That’s been pretty devastating to us and all the farmers in this area.”

A REGION BUILT ON BLUEBERRIES

The stakes are high for this part of the state, which dedicates more than eighteen hundred acres to blueberry production this season alone. For operations like Cornelius Farms — which has been growing blueberries for more than thirty-five years — keeping the entire process in house has proven to be a key competitive advantage.

“When you have your own packing facility, if the quality is poor, you can focus on it more. You can respond to what the market needs — different sized packs, different deadlines. It’s a constant change,” Cornelius said. “But when you have your own facility, you can react.”

DEMAND KEEPS GROWING

That adaptability is increasingly important as consumer demand for blueberries continues to rise, driven by a decade of positive press around the fruit’s health benefits.

“The positive health benefits have really grown our business,” Cornelius said. “We continue planting new varieties and new breeder programs everywhere to improve what we put in the ground — to make a better berry, better taste, and a better result for the consumer.”

For Georgia’s blueberry growers, this season offers more than just a strong harvest. It’s a much-needed sign that after years of setbacks, the industry is resilient and moving forward.

By: Damon Jones

Late Frost and Rising Costs Put Pike County Peach Crop on Shorter Season

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Concord, GA |

At Gregg Farms in Pike County, this year’s peach crop is shaping up to look a little different. A warmer-than-normal winter followed by a late frost has left producers adjusting expectations, with a shorter crop translating into a shorter season for customers.

“This year is going to be a little shorter. It got warm earlier, and we had a late frost about a week before Easter — and since all the peaches were bloomed, it got a lot of them,” said Stuart Gregg of Gregg Farms. “We’ll still have a crop this year. It’ll just be a little bit shorter. We might not be open every day or have you-pick every day, but we’ll have something throughout the summer. It just won’t be like other seasons when you have a bumper crop.”

NOT ALL VARIETIES WERE HIT

While the late frost caused significant damage, Gregg says the timing spared some later-blooming varieties, softening what could have been a total loss for certain parts of the orchard.

“I’d say about fifty percent of the peaches got damaged. A lot of the early peaches are at a loss, but the others just kind of got thinned out — so we’re not having to do as much thinning this year due to that frost,” Gregg said. “We’ll just be a little bit later opening, because most of the early peaches were in full bloom while some of the others weren’t all the way bloomed yet.”

COLD WEATHER: A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD

According to Gregg, timing is everything when it comes to cold weather and peach trees. The trees require a certain number of chill hours while dormant — but once they bloom, even a brief freeze can quickly turn a promising crop into a challenging season.

“Cold weather is good and bad for peach trees. After the trees go dormant, they have to have over a thousand chill hours — anything below forty degrees,” Gregg explained. “This year was a little different because it was a warmer winter, so we didn’t get our chill hours until way later. Since we were still able to get them, it really didn’t affect the trees. But then it finally got warm, everything started blooming, and we had that late frost. Once the peaches are open, they’re real susceptible to cold — and that’s what happened.”

DROUGHT A CONCERN, BUT NOT YET CRITICAL

Beyond the frost, dry conditions across the state have added another layer of uncertainty for peach growers. For now, Gregg says their trees haven’t been significantly impacted — but he’s watching the forecast closely.

“It’s still early. The peaches are still growing, and there’s still a little bit of water in the ground. We just had a rain, so that’s really helped,” Gregg said. “But if we were to keep getting this drought, it would just be a bad year overall — peaches wouldn’t be that big. We don’t have irrigation on the peaches. We irrigate our flowers and our blueberries, but the peaches are just at the mercy of Mother Nature, like with the frost.”

RISING COSTS ADD TO THE PRESSURE

As if weather challenges weren’t enough, rising input costs are adding financial stress to an already difficult start to the season. Fuel, fertilizer, and other operating expenses have climbed sharply in recent months, squeezing margins for producers like Gregg.

“Everything costs more — fuel, fertilizer, all inputs have just increased the cost of everything,” Gregg said. “It’s going to affect the end consumer just like it affects us. Everything’s more expensive. It takes more to get things done, and you can’t skip out on stuff just because it’s a little more expensive. It’s just making it tougher and making you stretch the dollar a little bit further, trying to get everything ready for everyone to come out.”

Despite the challenges, Gregg Farms is pressing forward — and Georgia peach fans can still look forward to a season, even if it looks a little different than years past.

By: John Holcomb

Early Drought Puts Georgia Farmers in Uncharted Territory

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Madison, GA |

All across the state, dry conditions are raising concerns for farmers and producers. A lack of rainfall and expanding drought are already impacting planting decisions and crop outlooks heading into the season.

For producers like Lee Nunn, the biggest concern isn’t the drought itself — it’s how early it arrived this season.

“In droughts in previous years, none of those years that I can remember off the top of my head could we not get a crop in. We had a drought during the crop year. This year is extremely different to me — being this dry, this early. I’ve never seen it in my years of farming to be stressed about getting the crop in the ground,” said Nunn.

While drought is nothing new for Georgia growers, Nunn says even typically reliable crops are showing signs of stress. His wheat crop — one that has rarely struggled for moisture in a quarter century — is now a cause for concern.

“We’ve never really had a problem in the last twenty-five years of growing wheat of ever having a lack of moisture on a wheat crop. I look back at some rainfall data, and we’re at about fifty percent moisture since the first of last September. We’re down about fifteen inches short in that time frame,” Nunn said.

EQUIPMENT AND COSTS

The lack of moisture isn’t just impacting crop development. Nunn says the soil has become so dry and hardened that his equipment is taking a serious toll, making planting more difficult and costly than usual.

“With the lack of moisture, that subsoil machine almost just can’t go in the ground. It is so hard. The red clay we have in this part of the state comes up like bricks and chunks — super hard and very abrasive,” Nunn said. “I would say we get at least half the life of our tips and our wear points on equipment compared to what we’d get with moisture. And honestly, that’s just an expense we can’t afford to take right now.”

Those added expenses come at a time when farmers are already struggling with high input and operating costs, putting even more pressure on producers heading into planting season.

“With the input costs we have right now at all-time highs — diesel fuel, fertilizer, equipment, equipment parts — just everything is at all-time highs,” Nunn said. “Commodity prices have crept up a little bit lately, and I’m thankful for that. But we’ve got to have a crop to sell this fall. Without adequate soil moisture, we can’t till the crop in, and we can’t plant the crop. If there’s no moisture there, there’s no need planting it.”

WINDOW IS CLOSING

According to Nunn, time and conditions will play a critical role in determining the rest of the season. If things don’t change, there’s a real chance this year’s crop won’t go in the ground at all.

“We have a pretty long window with cotton — at least another month to plant, up until about the first of June in this part of the state,” Nunn said. “We don’t like to plant much past the first week of June, so we do have some time. But the longer you wait, the less yield you have, and the more problems you have with the cotton crop.”

“That’s not to say you can’t make a crop,” he added. “But the chances are a lot less that you’ll make a perfect crop — and we almost need a perfect crop for these type of situations with inputs and pricing.”

As the season progresses, Georgia producers like Nunn will be watching the forecast closely, hoping for the rain that could mean the difference between a challenging year and no crop at all.

By: John Holcomb

Fertilizer Prices Surge as Georgia Row Crop Growers Begin Planting Season

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Tifton, GA |

As planting season gets underway for Georgia’s staple row crops, growers are firing up their fertilization schedules — and facing a costly start to the season. Fertilizer prices have jumped more than twenty percent across the board, with one key nutrient being hit especially hard.

“One of the biggest challenges we have right now is that a lot of fertilizers, especially nitrogen-based fertilizers, come from the Middle East. Because we have the Strait of Hormuz closed, it’s becoming a challenge for growers because not a lot of fertilizers are getting here to the U.S. — and that’s causing prices to surge,” said Doug Amarel, an agronomist with the University of Georgia Extension.

That surge includes a fifty percent jump in nitrogen prices alone, putting cotton growers in a particularly difficult position heading into the season.

A DELICATE BALANCING ACT

“Nitrogen is one of the most important fertilizers, especially if you’re doing cotton. It can account for up to fifteen to twenty percent of production costs, so growers need to find ways to cut costs,” Amarel said. “In years like this, when you have high fertilizer prices, you need to adjust. You need to manage the ways to stay profitable — whether that’s cutting back on some fertilizers, managing different crops, different rotations, or different practices in the field.”

But cutting back too aggressively carries its own risks. Amarel says fertilizer management is one of the most consequential decisions a grower can make.

“The three most important things about growing crops are genetics, the environment — something we cannot control — and management,” he said. “And management, eighty to ninety percent of it, is about nutrient management or fertilizer management in the field. If you apply too much nitrogen and not enough potassium, or too much phosphorus without the right micronutrients, you are hurting your crop. You still need to apply enough to be profitable and to produce your crop.”

START WITH A SOIL TEST

With margins already tight, Amarel says getting the most out of every application will be critical — and that starts well before the first pass across the field.

“The most important thing I’ve been telling growers: soil test. That’s the foundation,” Amarel said. “If you don’t know what’s in your soil, there is no way to manage your fertilizers properly. You don’t know how much nitrogen, potassium, or phosphorus you need to apply. A soil test is the foundation of any nutrient management plan right now.”

DROUGHT ADDS ANOTHER LAYER

All of that planning, however, will ultimately depend on whether the historically dry conditions gripping much of the state finally come to an end. Without adequate moisture, even a well-executed fertilizer plan can fall short.

“It creates another problem, especially for growers doing dryland crops,” Amarel said. “We still need water for the crop to uptake nutrients. If there is no water, the crop cannot uptake nutrients. So you may want to go slower at the beginning of the season and adjust as you go — splitting your applications to improve nutrient use efficiency.”

For Georgia’s row crop producers, the 2026 growing season is shaping up to be a test of both patience and precision — with every input decision carrying more weight than usual.

By: Damon Jones

Field Day Provides Crop, Research Updates

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Tifton, GA |

In Tifton recently, producers got an up close and personal look at the latest cotton and peanut research. It’s an event that’s an important one for producers as they get to see firsthand the important, grower funded work that’s being done that will keep the industry successful for years to come.

“We’re all in need of new information. Certainly in a trying times that we’ve got economically on the farm. We need to know the latest and the greatest, and of course, some of the stuff really won’t be available for commercial production for several years, but it’s good to have an idea of what our researchers are doing. The other side of it is it gives us a firsthand look at what our researchers are doing, the effort, the information and work that they’re putting in to get these improvements in our growing process and it just makes you feel good about how our research dollars are being spent,” says Joe Boddiford, Chairman of the Georgia Peanut Commission.

Of course, another important aspect of the event is getting to hear updates from experts on this year’s crop. This year was of course a rough one from the start as producers had a hard time even getting the crop planted, which according to UGA’s Scott Monfort, has now delayed most of this year’s peanut crop.

“Overall this year has progressed to be a pretty decent year. Every year, we have a lot of bumps and bruises to get to where we’re at today. We had a lot of rainfall in May that pushed our planting season back 2 to 3 weeks. So, a lot of our acres were planted last week of May going into June. Then we went from being extremely wet to extremely hot and dry in June. So, we fought some things to get this crop up and going,” says Extension Peanut Agronomist, Scott Montfort.

Since getting it up and going, producers have still had a challenging time, as the weather has caused a number of disease issues for peanut producers.

“Problem we face this year has been tomato spotted wilt virus. It will be a problem every single year, but growers need to look in their fields now. More spotted wilt than you want? What could you have done earlier to do it? Leaf spot diseases are always a problem for Georgia’s peanut farmers, always; but this year they’ve been a little bit slow to develop. I think that that warm, dry weather we had mid-season kind of was a restart button for this disease. Now growers are facing leaf spot diseases. They need to take an opportunity to manage them, but I think it’s been a little slow. The disease that’s been number one issue for us and certainly environmentally driven has been part of that has been white mold. White mold flourishes when we have warm, moist, humid nighttime temperatures. We’ve had that even when we’re not getting rain. If we have heat, if we have warm days, it can be,” says Bob Kemerait, Extension Plant Pathologist.

Monfort says that the rollercoaster of weather has continued to be a trend all throughout the growing season, as even now, dryland peanuts are suffering from the lack of rain. However, he says despite that, the crop could still turn out to be a decent one.

“The dryland crop is struggling. That’s around 49 percent of our crop is dryland. We had a lot more irrigated this time. And so that’s the one that I’m really concerned about as far as how is that going to fare out. I think it’s, it’s a good, maybe slightly above average crop,” says Monfort.

By: John Holcomb

Farmers Dealing with Heat, Drought and Storms

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Watkinsville, GA |

Some of Georgia’s biggest crops like peanuts, cotton and corn are now in the ground. And so far, Mother Nature has been less than kind, with temperatures being well above average despite the highs never reaching triple digits, due mainly to the increased heat at night.

“We’re seeing temperatures not get down that low. So, we’re seeing a lot of this moisture. The moisture causes problems for fungal diseases, causes problems for some crops like corn that need cooler temperatures to do well, causes problems for livestock because livestock are mammals just like us and they need cooler temperatures, really to do well too,” says Pam Knox, Agricultural Climatologist.

However, the biggest concern is the complete absence of rain in some areas of the state as 158 different counties are reporting drought conditions, including 16 of those in severe drought. And while an increase in precipitation is forecasted over the next month, it is likely to be pretty spotty.

“It may not be in the same part of the state every time. One, they’re not going to move very fast because we’re not in really much in the way of jet streams right now, but they’re going to move a little bit. And so, they develop in one place, drop rain there, wet up the soil so that the next day, that can start to produce thunderstorms. Over time, you would hope that it would kind of distribute over the area, but thunderstorm rain is really spotty and even within a county, you could get no rain on one part of the county and several inches on the other part,” says Knox.

This increased heat might also cause problems later in the summer, as the warm ocean waters indicate tropical storms are likely to be in the rise this year.

“The tropics will really start to pick up, probably around mid-August. It’s supposed to be a really busy year. The ocean is hot. There’s not much wind shear because we’re in neutral conditions right now, headed for La Nina. And so, once the storms start popping, we could see a lot of storms coming in, almost like a freight train,” says Knox.

That means farmers will need to be prepared to harvest their crop on a moment’s notice if the situation arises to maximize their yields.

“People that are worried about timing of harvesting are really going to have to watch carefully because you’re going to want to know when those storms are coming in and you’re going to want to be able to prepare for that. So, this year, the real watch word is get ready now. Make sure you got your paperwork in order. Make sure you know what to do. Make sure you got plans for your workers and your families and so on just in case,” says Knox.

The big question is whether these unprecedented conditions are a trend or just an anomaly. While predicting the future is anything but certain, Knox says the former is definitely a possibility.

“I don’t know that there’s been any studies say that there’s a trend towards this in the future, but it’s something we have to keep in mind because the tropics are kind of expanding as the earth gets warmer. That means we’re going to be in in the area of the tropics where the air is descending as it does over the Sahara Desert and the US Southwest and so on. So, we could see more frequent patterns of these high pressures that just dominate the area,” says Knox.

By: Damon Jones

Continued Drought Concerning for Northwest Georgia Livestock Producers

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Villanow, GA |

Here in Walker County, it’s hard to believe that things are better than they were just a couple of weeks ago, as they went almost three whole months with just a fraction of an inch of rain in what’s called an exceptional drought – the worst level there is and was even designated by the USDA as one of the eleven natural disaster counties in the region. It’s something that’s of course been a concern to most everyone, but to cattle producers like Brian Hart, the concern is very much still there.

“This year, our rainfall was perfectly normal until the last week of August and the last week of August it basically quit raining. This area has been in a drought for all of September, all of October, all of November and starting into December. We have had some rains the last part of November and some rains early December and rain forecasted this weekend, which is hopeful, but it’s just been a terribly, terribly dry time for those months and it affected our Fall grazing. We really didn’t know yet how it’s going to affect our hay crop next year,” says Brian Hart, Owner of Red Barn Farm.

As you can tell, most, if not all of the forage is long gone into dormancy, which has forced Brian to start feeding hay early this year.

“We typically graze our fescue pastures up until mid-November, early December with good rain and we don’t put up that much hay, but our hay consumption this year has been extremely high since really about the middle of September because there has been no grass, as you could see from looking in the fields there. It’s just it’s really dried up. We do have some fields we haven’t grazed yet that look decent, but it’s certainly affected our hay consumption. We’ve probably fed an additional hundred rolls of hay already this year that we normally do not feed,” says Hart.

Of course having to start feeding hay earlier than expected has caused his hay stocks to be depleted much faster than normal, which has caused him to have to purchase more hay to make sure they have enough to last them through the Winter.

“We’ve actually purchased some hay just to make sure we have enough. I think we have enough. A lot of it depends on what the grass does when it does start raining, because that’s what nobody knows. If it starts raining normally in December, we don’t know what the grass is going to do behind that rain, so we have bought an additional 150 rolls of hay that we’re going to feed if needed,” says Hart.

One thing that’s concerning to Hart is the long-term effect on his herd, as he relies on Winter grazing to help maintain his cattle’s weight, but without it, he’s afraid they may come up short when it’s time to sell.

“In the calf business like we’re in, we typically wean off 650-700 pound calves every spring along the May or June time frame. We don’t know what those weights are going to be because of the shortage of grass. Now we’ve got plenty of hay to feed them, but they’ll gain a lot better if they had some grass to go with it so that’s another way that it very easily could affect us,” says Hart.

Drought conditions have lessened in the last couple of weeks, but most of the Northwest Georgia area remains in severe drought conditions and it’s unclear when those conditions will ease up.

By: John Holcomb