Supervisors mull drought resolution

By Alicia Rimel

Published: August 25, 2008

Hampered by low rainfall, six of nine farms surveyed by the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service fell at or below a 35-percent yield loss, officials said Monday.
“In general, the southeastern and eastern parts of the county were dry very early during the spring and throughout the summer,” Virginia Cooperative Extension agent Brian Jones told Augusta County supervisors. “As the seasons progressed, southwestern portions of the county and southern portions of the county were even drier.”
Crop yields on seven county farms surveyed a year ago by the cooperative extension service were off an average of 42 percent from their historic yield of bushels. The threshold to seek federal drought relief assistance is 35 percent.
Jones and agent Jason Carter surveyed nine farms at different points throughout the county in an attempt to determine how rainfalls are affecting corn yields and livestock forage. Crop yield numbers were compiled by comparing the numbers to past averages. The state of forage growth was inspected visually.
They also looked to cattle sales as an indication of the effect of drier weather.
“[We] looked at cattle marketing activity and gauged – in other words, are we seeing more cattle sold at this time of year than we normally see, which is normally an indicator of dry conditions, and are producers needing hay earlier than normal?” said Jones. “We talked to a good many producers about that.”
Rainfall patterns in northern Augusta were spotty, Jones said: “The northwestern and northeastern portions of the county, it really depended on where you were even through the spring and summer months; very spotty showers in those areas.”
Carter presented information compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture assessing how areas across the country are affected by decreased rainfall.
“As recently as Aug. 12, Augusta County was not considered abnormally dry [in] the national picture, only in southeastern portions of the county,” Carter said. “Then last week, that progression has worked its way up to the entire county being considered as abnormally dry. This is also very representative of the spotty rain conditions that we’ve seen this summer, which made that drought slower to progress this summer more so probably than last year.”
The result likely will be lower corn yield projections this year on the heels of a difficult season last summer, when drought conditions prevailed, Carter said.
There has also been a 6-percent increase in the marketing of female cattle, or “momma cow marketing,” which indicates that some farmers are being forced to downsize herds, another an indicator of dry weather, Carter said.