Hardship rains on Rappahannock County farmers

Drought draining ag resources

Mike Sands remembers a gut feeling he had around the middle of July. Something didn’t seem right about the weather patterns, he said. There had been a thunderstorm with heavy rain on July 3, but next to no precipitation since then. He hoped that would change soon. 

It didn’t. 

By mid-August, it was clear to Sands, owner of Bean Hollow Grassfed in Flint Hill, that things were not getting better. Only about an inch of rain would fall on the farm all month, slightly more elsewhere in the county. 

“Then it was like, ‘Okay, this is serious,’” he said.

It was around that time that John Genho, manager of Eldon Farms in Woodville, started noticing that the water in the ponds and streams on the 7,100-acre property was clearly lower than normal. “By late August, we started getting worried,” he said. 

By then, Mike Massie had started hauling tanks of water out to his cattle in the fields near Washington because their usual drinking spots were running dry. The last time he had to do that on a regular basis was during a drought in 1999.  

“I’ve been here 68 years,” he said, “and this is by far the driest I’ve ever seen it.”

Running out of hay

Officially, more than 85% of Rappahannock County is now experiencing what are considered “severe drought” conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

August was the driest month here in this century. September had a close-to-normal level of precipitation, but it was concentrated in a few thunderstorms and only one actual rainy day. Sept. 23 was the last day it rained more than an inch in the county. 

October was almost as dry as August, dropping to a level not seen in Rappahannock since 2001. Then came eight days in November before another drop of rain fell last week. 

According to the federal government’s National Integrated Drought Information System, the prolonged dry spell is affecting more than 18,000 acres of hay, 2,500 acres of haylage, 6,310 cattle and 663 sheep in the county.

“The hay yields are down. The grass is not growing back like it normally does if we have enough rainfall. So forage supply is affected,” said Kenner Love, the Virginia Tech extension agent for Rappahannock County. He estimated that 70 to 75% of the community’s farmers have been affected. “What that means is that you have to do one of two things: Sell animals or start feeding them hay earlier than usual.”

Some farmers in the county began doing the latter as early as September, which increases the risk that their supply will run out during the winter. If they need to buy more hay – at $45 to $70 a bale – that could get costly. 

Genho said he’s been able to avoid feeding his cattle hay so far by taking advantage of the multiple fields at Eldon Farms, and closely following a grazing rotation. But he said that during the past three months, herdsmen have had to bypass  several fields because they held so little water. 

He also has made a point of keeping the herd “understocked.” Genho said Eldon now has 850 cows. In the past, it has had as many as 1,200. 

“When you have more cows, you can get into a bind a lot faster,” he said. He thinks a lot of local farmers are reducing their herds. “They’re just saying that rather than trying to buy feed, I’ll sell cows.” 

Shrinking ponds

Sands, at Bean Hollow Grassfed, has gone that route. In late summer, the farm had 200 sheep and 38 cows. Since then, it has sent 40 lambs and 15 cows to market, and 30 mature ewes will also soon be shipped. 

“It’s kinda dealing with the reality of getting rid of animals,” he said. “We buy hay. We don’t produce hay. And I bought as much as I’m going to buy.”

One saving grace is that meat prices have stayed high, as much as 25 to 30 percent higher than they were a few  years ago, by Sands’ estimate. But he noted that those prices will likely go down over the winter while the cost of hay will rise.

A more pressing short-term problem is the dwindling supply of surface water from which animals can drink. During the summer, an adult cow can put away 20 gallons in a day. 

Typically, about 40 to 45 inches of rain or snow falls on Rappahannock County in a year, although it can vary from place to place in the county. But through the end of October, precipitation here has totaled only about 27 or 28 inches.

“Anyone who’s watering out of streams is really struggling,” Sands said. “A lot of these streams are typically perennial, but now it’s only in the little pool areas where there’s free water. The rest of the flow is down in the rocks where the cattle can’t get at it.”

So more farmers like Massie have had to haul water out to their herds. But, as Love noted, that’s far from ideal. 

“Hauling water is not profitable,” he said. “It’s not something you want to do for a long time.”

Fire risks

The long drought also has had an impact beyond farmers’ fields. Most notably, it was a huge factor in the spread of the Quaker Run wildfire that has burned more than 3,800 acres in Madison County, including about 670 acres in Shenandoah National Park. That prompted bans on outdoor open fires in the park, as well as in Rappahannock and Madison counties. Numerous trails in the park were also closed, and a ban was issued on fishing there due to low stream flows and high water temperatures.

It also has raised concerns among the community’s firefighters, not just because of the high risk of wildfires, but also the diminished supply of water. 

“Many times we rely on ponds, rivers and streams as water sources to fight fires once we have used water from our tankers,” said Richie Burke, chief of the Sperryville Volunteer Fire Department and president of the Rappahannock County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association. “It can always be a concern for water supply, depending on the nature, size and location of any fire in a rural area.” 

While the drought has noticeably drained natural sources of water throughout the county, it hasn’t, to this point, had much impact on the reservoir serving the county’s seat of Washington, according to Barbara Batson, the town’s administrator. The water level there remains normal, she said.

The parched conditions, however, have fed anxiety in the rest of the county about wells running dry. But that’s not likely to happen, according to Jay Eaves, a well contractor and owner of Amissville-based Aquaman Water Service.

He pointed out that most wells in Rappahannock have been dug too deep to be greatly affected by a lack of rainfall. “They have to be quite shallow for that to happen, so I don’t see a big problem down the pike,” he said. 

“It’s always a topic of concern, you know, when we have periods of minimal rain and people get more water conscious,” he added. “Conservation is always a good approach, but most times when wells go dry, it’s due to other things, like leaks.”

Still, that’s likely small consolation to farmers dealing with the consequences of a drought now stretching into its fifth month, with no prediction that it will end soon. 

“I had a professor who said droughts will continue until the next good rain,” said Love. “That was always his answer.”

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