Hot News

8.21.2007

By Jane W. Graham
AFP Correspondent

Hot record-breaking temperatures and no rain during the past week have increased the stress on crops across the Old Dominion.
The U.S. Drought Monitor Map for Virginia released on Aug. 16 had changed dramatically from the one released on Aug. 7.
Conditions ranged from extreme drought in the southwestern corner of the state where Virginia meets Tennessee and Kentucky to abnormally dry in the middle of the state.
Northern Virginia and much of southwestern Virginia are in severe drought, the report showed while some of central Virginia, the southeast and southern counties and the New River Valley are shown in moderate drought.
Pasture and hay continued to deteriorate because of the high temperatures, USDA reported. The agency said corn was beginning to dry up and soybeans were entering a stage where precipitation is critical.
The data from the agency was released on Aug. 13 for the week of Aug. 6-12. New figures will be released on Aug. 20.
David Fiske, superintendent of Virginia Tech’s Shenandoah Valley Agriculture Research and Extension Center at Steele’s Tavern, reported early last week that he was beginning to cut corn in an effort to save it.
He said the harvesting is about four months early this year due to the dry weather.
“We’re burned up here,” he said.
Bobby Brown, a life-long farmer in Pulaski County, reported a spring had gone dry on his farm that week.
He said during most of his life, the spring had run year-round.
It has just been in the past few years that it has dried up in the summer. That happened a couple of weeks later this year than in the past, he said.
Some cattle farmers reported culling cattle and sending them to slaughter.
Others are feeding hay or grazing hay fields to make up for the lack of pasture.
“The hay shortage is becoming more acute as feeding uses up the limited supply,” USDA quoted Carl Stafford, Culpeper County Extension agent, as reporting. “Sources are needed from outside the area. Early corn chopping salvages fodder, involuntary culling of cattle and early selling of light weight calves reduce demands on stored feed.”
“Drought and extreme temperatures continue to take their toll on all crops,” said Jon Repair, Extension agent in Rockbridge County. “Corn is at a very critical stage and yields are negatively affected each day this weather continues. Pasture growth is nonexistent and many are feeding livestock.”
Repair reported that producers are beginning to sell all or part of their cowherds.
“At this point, it appears it will be a long winter (September through April) if substantial rains don’t begin to fall soon. Rockbridge County will be seeking disaster recognition this week following the board of supervisors meeting.”
Marion Horsley, spokeswoman for Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, reported seven Virginia localities had received disaster designations from the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture as of Aug. 13.
These include Culpeper County in the northern part of the state and Lee, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Washington and Wise counties in the far southwestern corner of the state.
In addition, 14 other localities have been designated a contiguous disaster area by the secretary. These counties also are on opposite sides of the state.
They include Fauquier, Orange, Stafford, Rappahannock, Madison and Spotsylvania counties to the east, and Bland, Buchanan, Grayson, Rappahannock, Dickenson and Wythe counties to the west, as well as the southwestern cities of Galax and Norton.
Horsley also reported that Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has announced that the agriculture secretary has designated two counties a primary natural disaster area for a different problem.
This is the damage caused by the Easter weekend cold spell from April 6-10. Kaine said Carroll and Patrick counties received this designation.
Several adjacent localities received contiguous disaster status due to the Easter freeze and frost. They are Floyd, Grayson, Pulaski, Franklin, Henry and Wythe counties and the city of Galax.
Kaine said the designations make farmers eligible for low-interest loans and any supplemental relief that may be provided by Congress.
Even though the designations are in place and more are expected as the drought continues it will take an act of Congress to bring help.
Brent Noell with the Farm Service Agency in Christiansburg, Va., said that there is a problem. The most recent disaster relief legislation was for the period of 2005 to February 2007. This means there are no funds available for disasters after February until Congress acts. Congress is currently on vacation.
Even though most of the state is suffering from some form of drought, it appears to be spotty in many places. Scattered showers have helped some grass turn green at least in a few places.
Chris Teutsch, forage researcher at the Virginia Tech’s Southern Piedmont AREC, and Blair Meldrum of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine have recently developed guidelines for nitrate testing on stress damaged forages.
Teutsch can be reached at cteutsch@vt.edu for information about the dangers of nitrate poisoning during drought.