MADISON – With “abnormally dry” weather persisting statewide, moderate drought conditions are stressing pasture and cropland within a swath of the western Piedmont and Shenandoah Valley, according to the Virginia Drought Monitor.
Rapid-onset droughts like this, sometimes referred to as "flash droughts," can cause significant agricultural economic impacts.
A few scattered showers are not enough to quench parched fields that are affecting growing and grazing throughout Virginia. Madison County cattleman Steve Mallory is already feeding his cows the hay that was just harvested.
“Most of my pastures are pretty well gone,” he said. “There’s not much left but a few weeds sticking up.”
Mallory is supplementing his own supply with hay from other farms, and feeding range cubes that are nutritionally dense, but expensive.
“It makes you feel a little defeated,” he continued. “But as long as the wells hold up and I don’t have to haul water, it’s OK.”
Having grown up on the farm, Mallory remembers other droughts.
“Once it was so dry we ran a fence into the woods and cut trees for cows to eat the leaves,” he recalled. “I remember that vividly. But we’re not there yet.”
Caroline County soybean and corn grower Lynwood Broaddus also has memories of extreme drought. With soybeans damaged by dry conditions, his father harvested about 40 acres of the plants and fed them to the cattle.
“This drought is nothing in comparison, but it still hurts,” he said. “Especially looking at the corn, which is reaching a crucial time.”
Some corn is tasseling and trying to silk too early, noted Broaddus, who serves on the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation Soybean & Feed Grains Advisory Committee.
With at least $500 invested in every acre of corn, watching it dry up can be immensely stressful and disruptive to a farmer’s mental health, Broaddus said.
“If we can get a rain on our corn in the next couple days, we can definitely get half a crop,” he continued. “The farmers who have significant irrigation are pumping water like crazy right now.”
Soybeans, Virginia’s top agricultural export, are “holding,” he said. But they need rain soon too. Otherwise, pods will drop in prolonged drought.
The farmers said a week of intermittent rainy weather could be the jumpstart that pasture and crops need.
“We’re actually hoping for a tropical system, even if it brings a lot of wind,” Mallory said. “It will take more than one rain event to rectify this situation. But we’ve been blessed with so many good years and nice growing seasons. We’ve just got to work through this one.”
