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Farms feel the heat

By Kati Burns
The Times-Journal

Published July 27, 2006

Drought has spread through Alabama, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated DeKalb County as a primary disaster area.

All qualified farm operators in the designated areas are eligible for low-interest emergency loans from USDA’s Farm Service Agency.

Though the crops of most local farmers have been damaged by heat and lack of moisture, poultry, livestock and hay fields have also suffered.

According to Regional Extension Agent Tinsley Gregg, DeKalb County is the state’s No. 2 producer of cattle and poultry, second only to Cullman.

“Poultry is probably going to suffer worse,” Gregg said. “There’ll just be an increased cost on that for farmers. They’ll have to run fans and air more in their chicken houses, and this will allow for things to break down more often and have to be fixed. Cattle won’t be affected as badly because they’ll be able to move around more.”

Gregg said the heat is causing many farmers to sell livestock before they normally would because they’re short on feed.

Gregg said he’s heard a lot of concerns from local farmers about the lack of moisture. Lack of moisture means grass will grow slowly, which directly affects the season’s hay crops.

According to Fort Payne Stockyard owner and operator Glean Plunkett, the number of cattle the stockyard has seen this year is up – but not drastically.

“This could be because of the weather,” Plunkett said. “It’s dry, and a lot of farmers are running out of hay. They’re bringing lighter weight cows in. I think some people are just panicking, but it’s not really a panic situation yet.”

Plunkett said the price of cattle has gone down slightly, and they’re seeing a few thin cows. Plunkett, who also owns cattle and bales his own hay, said he thinks he has baled only half of what he baled last year at this time.

“Right now, we’re short on hay and we’re hoping to have hay left over from last year to go on,” Plunkett said. “We make some of our own feed so we’ll feed the cows more than normal but we may have to find some area to go to buy hay.”

The price of hay is normally $15-$35 a roll but Plunkett said that amount has gone up considerably in some places.

Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks said the state is in a severe drought that spreads from both north and south Alabama.

“Alabama has had one of the driest springs in recorded history,” Sparks said. “This drought is worse than what we experienced in 2000. Ninety percent of our corn crop is gone and we’re selling twice as much cattle this year as last year. I have met with many of these farmers in person and talked with more by phone and they have all been asking for the same thing, help. It is my intention and my commitment to them to do everything in my power to do just that.”

Sparks. a Fort Payne native, said in 2000, the state was able to move roughly 20,000 rows of hay from the North to the South during that drought. However, there is no hay to move this year. What little rain the state has received has been in spots and agriculture overall has a real problem, Sparks said.

“There are going to be long term effects of this drought,” Sparks said. “There’s no hay in the North or the South and the drought is basically spread across the country.”

Etowah, Cherokee and Jackson are also included in those counties designated as disaster areas because of losses caused by drought and high temperatures.

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