Tennessee Drought is Affecting Crops and Expected to Worsen

Drought conditions have claimed a third or more of the crops planted on farms in a dozen Tennessee counties. Governor Phil Bredesen is asking the federal government to declare an agricultural disaster, a move that would make low-interest loans and other financial assistance available to farmers in the affected areas.

Climate data released today shows much of Tennessee is considered abnormally dry or in some degree of drought. And although winter is usually this area’s rainy season, the dry conditions are expected to worsen over the next few months.

Across the state, yields are down for some of the state’s biggest cash crops, like corn, soybeans and burley tobacco. And drought-watcher Brian Fuchs says livestock farms are feeling the pinch as well.

“Their pastures and rangelands that they typically feed these animals with have just been decimated over the last several months and there is no forage.”

Fuchs says the spring harvest may already be affected, since many farmers are deciding that the soil is too dry to plant winter wheat.

So far, the drought is much milder than the one in 2007 that affected agricultural yields, energy production and drinking water supplies. It took several years of very dry conditions to cause those problems. But Fuchs warns that now the timeline may be accelerated.

“Some of the landscape and ecosystems of the region are still fairly fragile from what they went through and it would not surprise me if this drought continues as suspected and projected that we could see some similar impacts start developing as early as the spring.”

It may seem odd that the ground is so dry after May’s widespread flooding, but most of that water drained off without saturating the soil. Since then, rainfall has been sparse and temperatures have been high. And thanks to cool water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, a La Nina pattern has formed that will likely make Tennessee’s winter relatively dry and warm as well.