Many north Georgia counties now eligible for USDA aid to farmers
Gilmer is among 11 north Georgia counties that were declared natural disaster areas by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) last week.
The emergency declaration issued by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is due to the extreme drought conditions still present here.
As of Friday, Gilmer remained in the extreme (level 3) drought category, meaning it’s received less than 25 percent of the normal amount of precipitation, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The highest drought classification is level 4 exceptional drought, in which a handful of northwest Georgia counties including Walker and Dade, are classified. Both those counties, which were declared USDA natural disaster areas earlier this month, have been battling extensive wildfires during the severe dry spell.
Roger Mooney, a Gilmer County cattle farmer who took up raising cows after his dad and granddad, said this is one of the worst droughts — or at least one of the most persistent ones — he’s seen in decades. That’s because rainfall was so slim through summer on into fall.
“September is usually a little dry, but in October, when the weather is still mild, you’ll normally get some rain. Then the grass kind of picks up for your winter grazing,” Mooney said. ‘This year, it was right the opposite. It was wet, and the grass wasn’t doing a lot in September. Then, when it cooled off, it dried off, too.”
September and October are also when north Georgia typically gets some amount of heavy rainfall from hurricanes headed up the coast, Mooney noted. But not this year.
“Even if those hurricanes are in the Gulf or Florida, they usually bring some rain to us, but we missed it every single time in October,” Mooney said. “The rain we get from a hurricane can usually get us through (a dry spell), but we missed it every time this year.”
The recent natural disaster declaration will allow the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) to extend emergency credit to farmers in affected areas in the form of loans that can be used for replacing essential items like farm equipment or livestock, reorganizing a farm operation or refinancing loans.
“The addition of these 11 north Georgia counties to last week’s natural disaster declaration is a welcomed source of relief for farmers facing severe drought conditions,” said Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper. “I know firsthand the impact drought conditions can have on our agriculture industry, especially those with dryland operations. Our team will do everything possible to help those hardest hit recover.”
The FSA is also accepting applications for its Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFDP) from farmers in eligible counties who meet certain requirements. That program provides financial assistance to eligible livestock producers with grazing losses caused by drought.
Several nearby counties including Fannin, Murray, Pickens and Union are also among the 20 counties now eligible for LFDP aid. The program applies to eligible farmers with cattle, alpacas, goats, llamas, sheep and several other types of livestock who’ve experienced qualifying grazing losses. The deadline to apply for that aid is Jan. 30.
“The severe and extreme drought conditions in our state have had a damaging impact on many livestock operations,” said Arthur Tripp, FSA executive director for Georgia. “Livestock producers in 20 eligible Georgia counties are highly encouraged to contact their local USDA Service Center to learn more about this critical drought recovery assistance.”
Mooney said he and his wife, Ashley, currently have around 100 cows. Normally, by this time of year, they’d also have around 1,000 bails of hay stockpiled and some winter grasses ready to grow for the cattle to graze on till it gets warmer. This year, none of those are looking plentiful.
“Everything we sowed in the fall, like oats and wheat, hasn’t come up, so we’ve lost all that. This year, we’ve got just between 500 and 600 (bails of hay). That’s been cut in half,” Mooney said. “Our grazing and a lot of the drinking water is also gone. (Several) springs we water our cows with have dried up.”
Hay is available from farms in south and middle Georgia, where the drought hasn’t been so severe or has subsided since summer, but the cost of trucking it up here is also a concern, noted Ashley. She said the Livestock Forage Program helps farmers in various ways.
“If you’re going out to get hay that’s being trucked from somewhere else, you’re still going to be out of pocket quite a bit, but it can help feed each cow an extra bail or two over the winter,” she said. “We’ve had drier years, but they haven’t impacted us as economically as they are right now. (For instance), 2015 was a terrible drought year, and a lot of people who relied on creeks or ponds had to drill wells then. There was also some assistance for that.”
The announcement of the USDA aid comes at a good time, as there’s not much in the way of backup plans for the circumstances a drought can cause, Roger noted.
“The backup plan is hay. When your hay is short and you run out of grass, you’re going to have to sell some cows,” he added.