Re: We need rain!!!
This is getting really bad.
This is getting really bad.
Drought turning farms to wasteland
Posted by Tavia Green June 01, 2007 6:32 AM
FAYETTE - Lance Whitehead knelt in the parched dirt Thursday and examined one of the small stalks on his 150-acre cornfield.
Where vibrant green plants with a couple of young ears of corn should've stood, yellow twisted stalks burned in the sun.
The corn should be chest high, Whitehead said, but some reached only to his waist. Other stalks barely came to his knees.
Across Alabama, an agricultural disaster is unfolding in slow motion. Nearly two-thirds of the corn crops and pastures and more than half of wheat crops are in poor or very poor condition, state officials say.
Cotton and soybean plants are starting to die, and there is little or no moisture in the soil to germinate peanuts, the state agriculture department reports. A third of the livestock is in distress with ponds, wells and streams drying up.
Whitehead, 34, like many of the 43,000 farmers in Alabama, could lose more than half of his crops. The extreme drought and summer heat threaten to force row-crop farmers and cattle ranchers to their knees.
"You almost have to rock back on your heels and just wait for it to rain," Whitehead said.
Thursday's U.S. Drought Monitor report showed 100 percent of the state is in drought, with 60 percent at the extreme level.
Danny Crawford, state executive director for the Alabama Farm Service Agency, said 41 of the 67 counties have been declared agricultural disaster areas. The agency is working with the governor's office to get disaster designations for the remaining counties.
As overall operating costs increase and the chances of a good crop dwindle, farmers like Whitehead and his partner, Todd Wakefield, 38, are feeling the stress of not knowing what will happen to their farming businesses this year.
"It's not a situation of good farmer or bad farmer," Wakefield said. "You just have to have faith in the good Lord, that he'll take care of you and bring rain."
Farmland irrigation is uncommon in the South. The House version of a new federal farm bill calls for grants to capture water, store it in reservoirs and use it to irrigate crops in the dry summer months. Rep. Terry Everett, R-Rehobeth, is a primary sponsor of the proposal.
Drought, freeze, drought:
The woes for farmers started with the late-season freeze in early April that killed or damaged many plants already in the ground. Warren Griffin, regional extension agent for agronomy in the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, said that many farmers replanted after the freeze but now face losing their second crops.
Alabama experienced drought last year and, with another drought this year, little room is left to recuperate. The state's rainfall is more than 47 inches below normal since January 2005 and higher temperatures now are rapidly leaving topsoil powder-dry, said John Dasher, statistician for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Scarcity of hay in fields:
Whitehead drove his Chevy Tahoe over a burnt-brown field. His boots crunched against the withered grass as he walked toward one of just four bales of hay.
The field should have 15 bales, he said.
Livestock farmers across the state worry how their animals will eat now with the hay scarce and the fields growing little grass. If they don't grow hay before next winter, the cattle will have nothing to eat then, either.
Many farmers are buying food supplements and feed in Kentucky and Tennessee and are having to water their livestock rather than depend on streams and ponds, said Jack Tatum, an agent for livestock and forage for the extension service. Some have had to sell their livestock earlier than expected to offset the cost.
The situation isn't any better in Whitehead's cotton fields.
In one field, blue cotton seeds rested neatly under clumps of crusting dirt as Whitehead dug a seed out of the ground. He planted the cotton May 10 and the seeds should have sprouted within five to six days.
"It's been 21 days," Whitehead said. "They look like they did the day we planted them."
Whitehead has been farming full-time on 2,400 acres since 2002, but the family farm has operated for a century. Over the generations, the farm has survived many droughts but Whitehead said the farming this year is looking like it will be the worst in his lifetime.
Griffin said many farmers stand to lose up to 50 percent of their corn, soybean, cotton and wheat crops if rain doesn't come soon.
"This is a disaster in the making that we've never seen before in Alabama as far as row crops," Griffin said.
Praying for rain:
If it doesn't rain, farmers across the state will be in emergency need of financial assistance, said Tatum, the extension agent. Farmers who had insurance before February might get a little help but not enough to compensate for the time, hard work and money put into the crops.
Griffin said there is not much assistance available for farmers suffering right now. Farmers in counties declared a disaster can apply for low-interest loans.
Farmers are looking to the sky and praying for rain in the coming weeks. Griffin urged the people of Alabama to join them.
"It's been two years in a row and it's going to be devastating," Griffin said.
Whitehead said he took out crop insurance long ago as a safety net, but compared it to putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound. He said the insurance usually covers half of what he loses.
"All hope is not gone ...," Whitehead said, "but it's fading fast."
Posted by Tavia Green June 01, 2007 6:32 AM
FAYETTE - Lance Whitehead knelt in the parched dirt Thursday and examined one of the small stalks on his 150-acre cornfield.
Where vibrant green plants with a couple of young ears of corn should've stood, yellow twisted stalks burned in the sun.
The corn should be chest high, Whitehead said, but some reached only to his waist. Other stalks barely came to his knees.
Across Alabama, an agricultural disaster is unfolding in slow motion. Nearly two-thirds of the corn crops and pastures and more than half of wheat crops are in poor or very poor condition, state officials say.
Cotton and soybean plants are starting to die, and there is little or no moisture in the soil to germinate peanuts, the state agriculture department reports. A third of the livestock is in distress with ponds, wells and streams drying up.
Whitehead, 34, like many of the 43,000 farmers in Alabama, could lose more than half of his crops. The extreme drought and summer heat threaten to force row-crop farmers and cattle ranchers to their knees.
"You almost have to rock back on your heels and just wait for it to rain," Whitehead said.
Thursday's U.S. Drought Monitor report showed 100 percent of the state is in drought, with 60 percent at the extreme level.
Danny Crawford, state executive director for the Alabama Farm Service Agency, said 41 of the 67 counties have been declared agricultural disaster areas. The agency is working with the governor's office to get disaster designations for the remaining counties.
As overall operating costs increase and the chances of a good crop dwindle, farmers like Whitehead and his partner, Todd Wakefield, 38, are feeling the stress of not knowing what will happen to their farming businesses this year.
"It's not a situation of good farmer or bad farmer," Wakefield said. "You just have to have faith in the good Lord, that he'll take care of you and bring rain."
Farmland irrigation is uncommon in the South. The House version of a new federal farm bill calls for grants to capture water, store it in reservoirs and use it to irrigate crops in the dry summer months. Rep. Terry Everett, R-Rehobeth, is a primary sponsor of the proposal.
Drought, freeze, drought:
The woes for farmers started with the late-season freeze in early April that killed or damaged many plants already in the ground. Warren Griffin, regional extension agent for agronomy in the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, said that many farmers replanted after the freeze but now face losing their second crops.
Alabama experienced drought last year and, with another drought this year, little room is left to recuperate. The state's rainfall is more than 47 inches below normal since January 2005 and higher temperatures now are rapidly leaving topsoil powder-dry, said John Dasher, statistician for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Scarcity of hay in fields:
Whitehead drove his Chevy Tahoe over a burnt-brown field. His boots crunched against the withered grass as he walked toward one of just four bales of hay.
The field should have 15 bales, he said.
Livestock farmers across the state worry how their animals will eat now with the hay scarce and the fields growing little grass. If they don't grow hay before next winter, the cattle will have nothing to eat then, either.
Many farmers are buying food supplements and feed in Kentucky and Tennessee and are having to water their livestock rather than depend on streams and ponds, said Jack Tatum, an agent for livestock and forage for the extension service. Some have had to sell their livestock earlier than expected to offset the cost.
The situation isn't any better in Whitehead's cotton fields.
In one field, blue cotton seeds rested neatly under clumps of crusting dirt as Whitehead dug a seed out of the ground. He planted the cotton May 10 and the seeds should have sprouted within five to six days.
"It's been 21 days," Whitehead said. "They look like they did the day we planted them."
Whitehead has been farming full-time on 2,400 acres since 2002, but the family farm has operated for a century. Over the generations, the farm has survived many droughts but Whitehead said the farming this year is looking like it will be the worst in his lifetime.
Griffin said many farmers stand to lose up to 50 percent of their corn, soybean, cotton and wheat crops if rain doesn't come soon.
"This is a disaster in the making that we've never seen before in Alabama as far as row crops," Griffin said.
Praying for rain:
If it doesn't rain, farmers across the state will be in emergency need of financial assistance, said Tatum, the extension agent. Farmers who had insurance before February might get a little help but not enough to compensate for the time, hard work and money put into the crops.
Griffin said there is not much assistance available for farmers suffering right now. Farmers in counties declared a disaster can apply for low-interest loans.
Farmers are looking to the sky and praying for rain in the coming weeks. Griffin urged the people of Alabama to join them.
"It's been two years in a row and it's going to be devastating," Griffin said.
Whitehead said he took out crop insurance long ago as a safety net, but compared it to putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound. He said the insurance usually covers half of what he loses.
"All hope is not gone ...," Whitehead said, "but it's fading fast."
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