Jackson County farmer Ben Smith stands in front of some of his cattle. One of Smith’s wells has gone dry. He and his family are conserving another for use at their home. He’s one of the West Virginia farmers struggling with the effects of a drought. (Lori Kersey | West Virginia Watch)
SANDYVILLE, W.Va. — When Ben Smith took over his family’s Jackson County farm, he expected floods. After all, he got his start at farming 10 years ago, not long before the deadly 2016 flood hit the state, destroying some of his hay and corn crops. Another flood just last year destroyed some of his corn, too.
What Smith didn’t anticipate was a 33-foot-deep, hand-dug well on his property drying up.
“I was told that that well had never gone dry — it did this year,” Smith said.
In a better year, Smith would be using the well to water his cattle, and the grass from his land to keep them fed through the summer and into the fall.
But this summer, during a drought, the grass stopped growing. Smith is taking more drastic measures — using his cash crop as livestock feed, and making daily trips to the public service district down the road to haul hundreds of gallons of water to the cows.
“Normally, when we harvest the corn, we sell the grain,” he said. “We’ve got a machine now that’s cutting the whole stock and grinding it up to feed the cows.” Using the corn as feed now will allow him to save his hay supply for the winter months, he said.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, as of Sept. 24, every county in West Virginia continues to experience drought conditions, and Jackson County is among the worst hit. It’s one of 15 counties with exceptional conditions. Rain this week was expected to help lessen dry conditions, but may not be enough to end the drought altogether.
In Jackson County, some springs and wells have dried, causing problems for the farmers there.
The Northern Jackson County Public Service District has seen a 116% increase in water sales amid a drought this summer. (Lori Kersey | West Virginia Watch)
‘There’s no springs. There’s no creeks’
The Northern Jackson County Public Service District in Sandyville is one of three places in Jackson County where people can buy bulk water. The agency sells it for a penny per gallon. A federal program allows farmers to be reimbursed for the costs of buying water.
“I think they’re all being bombarded with folks, but we’re getting people from Ripley, Evans — all around the northern part of the county,” Manager Betsy Haught said. “It’s quiet right now, but there’s times that you can look out there and there will be two or three trucks lined up just waiting to get water because there’s no springs. There’s no creeks. There’s nothing in the creeks.”
Haught said the public service district has seen a 116% increase in water sales this summer compared to last year during the same time.
“I know that a lot of guys have talked about how they’re already taking their cattle to the livestock market over in Fairplain, because they just don’t have the water for them, they don’t have the hay for them, that type of thing,” Haught said.
Selling the cattle early can mean the farmer loses out on more money they could have gotten for the animals had they waited until the animals weighed more.
Joe Boggess has already sold off some of his cattle because of the drought. He comes to the public service district daily to haul hundreds of gallons of water back to his Jackson County farm.
“It gets real tiring,” Boggess said. “Every day, every day — I’m feeding hay and I’ve got to get a load of water every day. And those days when the heat index was over 100, sometimes you wonder, why [am I doing it]?”
In a good year, Boggess has enough grass to hold off feeding the animals from his supply of hay, allowing him to save it until October and use it on through the winter. This year, he started feeding hay to cattle in July, meaning the supply likely won’t last that long.
It’s a similar story for John Frances, a farmer who has been feeding his animals hay ahead of schedule, and hauling them water since August, he said.
“Usually, cattle, you dump city water out to them and they kind of snarl their nose,” he said. “Mine ran straight to the trough and drank it dry,” Frances said.
With fewer acorns in the woods for them, the deer have eaten more than their usual share of crops this year, too, farmers say. Frances said he’s noticed a large herd staying in his eight-acre hayfield along the road.
“They’re there probably right now,” Frances said. “They get done eating and they just lay down there. You never seen that before. They’d go in the woods or something like that. But they’ll go off the side of the shade trees or something, lay down and they’re there.”
The deer have also been drinking water from a tank Smith has for calves, he said.
Frances has cattle and a few donkeys. This year, he sold off calves as expected, along with some heifers.
“I had five real good heifers, and I debated on keeping them,” Frances said. “I’m glad I sold them now. I probably would have had to sell them anyway.”
For Smith, feeding his corn to his cows comes with a financial cost. It cost him about $24,000 to grow a field of corn, he said, and he expected to make $35,000 to $40,000 selling it.
While the drought has already caused farmers to lose money this year, some are worried its effects could go on next year, even if it rains.
Smith would normally use the grain from his corn to feed the pigs and beef cows, next year.
Instead, he’ll have to buy feed next year, he said.
“So this isn’t just this year’s effect. It’s affecting next year already,” Smith said.
Drought may be on special session call
Beth Southern, a spokeswoman for the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, said the state office of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency has so far paid out $2.4 million to West Virginia farmers through their disaster relief programs. The numbers change daily as applications are processed, she said.
The West Virginia Conservation Agency has also distributed more than $76,000 in assistance for producers.
Gov. Jim Justice issued a drought-related state of emergency for all 55 counties in July, and last month he extended it another 30 days, through most of September. The declaration allows the state to access different pools of money and resources to respond to emergencies, but doesn’t require the state to provide assistance to farmers.
When asked whether the call for a special legislative session planned for next week would include assistance for farmers affected by the drought, CJ Harvey, a spokesman for Gov. Jim Justice, said Wednesday that “everything is on the table.”
Harvey referred a reporter to a state grant program that reimburses fire departments and other public agencies that help reduce drought-related harm to farmers in drought-affected areas of the state.
Del. Steve Westfall, R-Jackson
Del. Steve Westfall, a Republican who represents Jackson County in the House of Delegates, said lawmakers were given a general outline of what the governor plans to propose during the special session. The governor alone sets the agenda for special sessions.
“As of right now, right now the only thing I’ve seen on there is just extending the state of emergency for the drought,” Westfall said. “That’s a concurrent resolution which sounds good in theory, but doesn’t do much. It doesn’t do anything to help the farmers.”
Southern said the state Department of Agriculture wants legislators to consider gaps in federal funding for drought relief during the special session. Extending the state of emergency is crucial because state options for funding would dry up without it, she said.
“The House and Senate leadership teams have been supportive of getting drought on the call and we’re hopeful the governor will honor the request,” Southern said.
Westfall said he would vote for any appropriation or other assistance for farmers the governor may suggest.
“We have a lot of farmers in West Virginia — most of them are smaller farmers, so the drought’s been hard,” Westfall said.
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