By Kate Evans, Morgan Messenger
While recent rains have helped offset a lengthy drought, area farmers have been having a rough time because of this summer’s lack of rainfall. From dried-up pastures, less hay and reduced crops to wells running dry and feeding cattle early, farmers have been hit hard.
In Morgan County, those who make a living or income from the land are working hard to make the most of a challenging season.
Kory Harmison is a local farmer and West Virginia Farm Bureau board member for Region 1-Morgan, Berkeley, Jefferson and Hampshire Counties.
Harmison said that at the climax of this summer’s drought, their pastures all died and they had to feed their cattle early. His farm operations got two cuttings of hay.
Crops had to be irrigated to survive. The harvest was slowed down and the amount of harvest was also down, he said.
“Crops have bounced back from the last month of rain. June, July and early August were hard,” Harmison said.
The Harmisons have cattle, haymaking and row crops of wheat and corn at their Berkeley Springs farm and a produce operation in Virginia, an estimated 850 acres of both farms combined. Harmison runs the farms with his dad John Harmison and his younger brother, Kody Harmison.
The Harmisons grow a good bit of hay for themselves and also grow it for the horse industry. They brood cows and raise calves to take to market.
Harmison said that the central part of West Virginia has been hit hard. Farmers there are trucking in hay from the Midwest. People may have culled a few cows to cope with the amount they were feeding their herd. That was happening nationwide.
