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A continuing rainfall deficit has put northern Rockbridge County in “severe drought” conditions, according to the latest data from the U.S. Drought Monitor. In response to this, the Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution earlier this month declaring a drought emergency and requesting disaster assistance from state and federal agencies.
Extension Agent Tom Stanley recommended the supervisors take this action. He noted this week that because of “the failure of fall pasture growth, already marginal hay inventories are being tapped 60 to 90 days earlier than usual.”
Stanley observed that “hay yields early in the growing season were highly variable. I got reports of hay yields right on normal levels to hay yields that were down by 50 percent. The impact of the limited hay inventories probably was manageable until the lack of rainfall in August and September – especially in September – since this is when our pastures typically rebound and can put on some significant growth and provide grazing through the fall.”
Rainfall totals for the year are well below average, but the deficit has grown progressively worse in recent weeks. Rain deficits for the year are -4.89 inches for Lexington, -7.12 for Glasgow and -.98 for Raphine. Rain deficits since August are significantly higher – -5.34 for Lexington, -7.86 for Glasgow and -4.99 for Raphine.
“The northern end of the county has been more impacted by drought than the southern end because the northern end of the county did not get some critical spring rains that the southern end of the county, generally, got,” said Stanley. These observations, he added, “always have to be accompanied with the caveat that in any given year, thunderstorm activity can be so varied that individual farms can be very dry while the neighboring farm is not as dry.”
Stanley said he worries that continuing rainfall deficits may be making conditions worse than is generally known. He offered “another observation that is purely anecdotal and I’ve got no data or research to which I can point, but it seems like our small creeks, springs, and even wells are more vulnerable to even short-term drought. My perception is this is occurring more because we are tapping more from the water table than ever before, but I don’t have any data or research to prove it.”
The drought declaration petitions Gov. Glenn Youngkin, U.S. senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, Congressman Ben Cline, state Sen. Creigh Deeds and Del. Ellen Campbell to seek to “obtain all possible financial assistance from any available federal or state agency to the farmers who are being so seriously injured by the extreme conditions in the county.”
