The drought has many consequences, including prices at the grocery store. I was recently lamenting the price of bread, and now I understand why it has become so much more expensive- it was not because of the drought, it was because of the April freeze. It all comes down to weather, one way or the other.

I spoke to Mitchell Mote, a county Extension Agent with the University of Tennessee Rutherford County Extension Office. First, I’d like to rave about the Extension Office- these people know just about everything. I had a problem with fire ants, and they came out and helped me with it several years ago. They have a home economics division that I hear is fabulous. And now Mr. Mote has told me everything I ever needed to know about what the farmers face with the drought.

Tennessee started out 2007 with rainfall totals slightly below normal. Last year’s rainfall was below normal, but the rain came in a timely enough manner so that most farmers were able to get a good yield from their crops. The rainfall was spotty- for example, Franklin County’s drought was worse last year than Rutherford County’s drought. This year, the drought is far-reaching and all counties are affected.

Corn is one of the most affected crops. Many farmers planted early because the fields were ready and then their seedlings were killed because of the hard freeze. When farmers went to replant, there was a seed shortage- many farmers were not able to get the seed they needed, or the type of seed they wanted to plant. Corn prices were up, so many more farmers were planting corn, also adding to the seed shortage.

Even if the corn managed to survive the freeze by either being planted later or being in the ground but not sprouting during the freeze, the rain has been so spotty that the corn is not yielding well. Many farmers of soybeans have found the crops are so poor they have decided to cut their losses and cut the beans for hay.

Here’s something I didn’t know- not just grass is made into hay. It is primarily made from grasses and legumes. Hay is any crop that is cured by drying. Hay’s quality is determined by how mature it is when cut and how much feed value it has. While this has been great hay curing weather, the feed value is low. Mitchell said this year’s hay yields are 60% of last year’s- at best.

As a result of all of this, the cattle farmers are selling off their cattle left and right. The Unionville Livestock Market sold approximately 2,500 cattle last Monday when normally it would sell about a thousand. The reasons for this are because the pasture grasses are doing poorly because of the drought, and the animals have less to eat. Supplemental food- like hay- is too expensive because of the poor hay yields.  The other reason so many cattle are being sold is because there’s not enough water for the animals. Little ponds and streams have dried up, so the normal water sources are getting to be harder to come by.

One might wonder why I’m going on at length about farmers. After all, most of us aren’t farmers, but the simple truth of the matter is that we all depend on farmers. When they have a hard year, our prices at grocery stores and restaurants go up. Expect corm prices to go up. Expect anything with wheat in it to get more expensive. Expect beef prices to go up. Mitchell said "We can only hope things are better next year." And hope we do.