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.”
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.”
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.”
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.