SANDYVILLE, West Virginia – When Ben Smith took over his family’s farm in Jackson County, he expected flooding. He finally started farming 10 years ago, not long before the deadly 2016 flood hit the state and destroyed some of his hay and corn crops. Another flood last year also destroyed some of his corn.
What Smith didn’t expect was for a 33-foot-deep hand-dug well on his property to arid up.
“I was told that this well has never run dry before – that was the case this year,” Smith said.
In a better year, Smith would employ the well to water his cattle and the grass from his land to feed them from summer into fall.
But this summer the grass stopped growing during a drought. Smith takes more drastic measures – using his crops for livestock feed and making daily trips to the public service district down the road to haul hundreds of gallons of water to the cows.
“Usually when we harvest the corn, we sell the grain,” he said. “We now have a machine that cuts and grinds all the livestock to feed to the cows.” Using the corn for feed now would allow him to save his hay supply for the winter months, he said.
According to the US Drought Monitor, As of September 24, all West Virginia counties continue to experience drought, and Jackson County is among the hardest hit counties. It is one of 15 counties with exceptional conditions. Rain this week was expected to aid ease the drought, but it may not have been enough to end the drought entirely.
In Jackson County, some springs and wells have dried up, causing problems for farmers there.
“There are no springs.” There are no streams.
The Northern Jackson County Public Service District in Sandyville is one of three places in Jackson County where people can purchase water in bulk. The agency sells it for a penny per gallon. A federal program allows farmers to be reimbursed for the cost of purchasing water.
“I think they’re all bombarded with people, but we get people from Ripley, Evans – all over the northern part of the county,” said manager Betsy Haught. “It’s quiet at the moment, but sometimes you can look outside and there are two or three trucks lined up just waiting to get water because there are no sources. There are no streams. There is nothing in the streams.”
Haught said water sales in the public service district increased 116% this summer compared to the same period last year.
“I know a lot of people have talked about how they’re already taking their cattle to the cattle market over in Fairplain because they just don’t have water for them because they’re out of hay kind of thing,” Haught said.
Selling cattle early can mean the farmer misses out on more money that he could have gotten for the animals if he had waited until the animals weighed more.
Joe Boggess has already sold some of his cattle because of the drought. He comes to the public service district every day to haul hundreds of gallons of water back to his farm in Jackson County.
“It’s going to be really tiring,” Boggess said. “Every day, every day – I feed hay and have to fetch a lot of water every day. And on those days when the heat index was over 100, you sometimes wonder why [am I doing it]?”
In a good year, Boggess has enough grass to avoid feeding the animals with his hay supply, so he can save it until October and employ it throughout the winter. This year he started feeding hay to the cattle in July, meaning the supply probably won’t last that long.
It’s a similar story for John Frances, a farmer who has been feeding his animals early hay and hauling them water since August, he said.
“Usually you throw city water on cattle and they kind of growl their noses,” he said. “Mine ran straight to the trough and drank it,” Frances said.
Since there are fewer acorns for them in the forest, the deer ate more than their usual share of the harvest this year, farmers say. Frances said he noticed a immense herd hanging out in his eight-acre hay field along the road.
“They’re probably there right now,” Frances said. “You finish eating and just lie down. You’ve never seen this before. They went into the forest or something. But they walk away from the side of the shade trees or something, lie down and there they are.”
The deer also drank water from a tank Smith had for calves, he said.
Frances has cattle and a few donkeys. This year, as expected, he sold calves and some heifers.
“I had five really good heifers and was thinking about keeping them,” Frances said. “I’m glad I sold it now. I probably would have had to sell it anyway.”
For Smith, feeding his corn to his cows comes at a financial cost. It cost him about $24,000 to plant a field of corn, he said, and he expects to make $35,000 to $40,000 from the sale.
While the drought has already caused farmers to lose money this year, some fear the impact could continue next year, even if it rains.
Normally, Smith would employ his corn grain to feed the hogs and cattle next year.
Instead, he said, he’ll have to buy feed next year.
“So this isn’t just this year’s effect. It’s already impacting next year,” Smith said.
Drought could be a special session
Beth Southern, a spokeswoman for the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, said the state office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency has so far paid out $2.4 million to West Virginia farmers through its disaster relief programs. The numbers change daily as applications are processed, she said.
The West Virginia Conservation Agency has also provided more than $76,000 in assistance to producers.
Governor Jim Justice declared a state of emergency due to the drought for all 55 counties in Julyand last month he extended it another 30 days, through most of September. The declaration allows the state to access various pools of money and resources to respond to emergencies, but does not require the state to provide assistance to farmers.
Asked whether the call for a special legislative session scheduled for next week would include aid for drought-stricken farmers, CJ Harvey, a spokesman for Gov. Jim Justice, said Wednesday that “everything on the table”.
Harvey referred a reporter to a state funding program This will compensate fire departments and other public entities that aid reduce drought-related damages to farmers in drought-affected areas of the state.
Del. Steve Westfall, a Republican who represents Jackson County in the House, said lawmakers have been given a general overview of what the governor plans to propose during the special session. The governor alone sets the agenda for special sessions.
“Right now the only thing I’ve seen there is the extension of the state of emergency because of the drought,” Westfall said. “This is a simultaneous solution that sounds good in theory, but doesn’t achieve much. It does nothing to help farmers.”
Southern said the state Department of Agriculture wants lawmakers to examine gaps in federal funding for drought relief during the special session. Extending the state of emergency is crucial because otherwise government funding options would arid up, she said.
“The leadership teams in the House and Senate have committed to preventing the drought in response to the call, and we hope the governor will act on the request,” Southern said.
Westfall said he would vote for any grant or other support for farmers proposed by the governor.
“We have a lot of farmers in West Virginia – most of them are smaller farmers, so the drought has been tough,” Westfall said.
