COLUMBUS, Ohio – Drought conditions have been devastating for producers in the East, Southeast and Midwest. Help is on the way.

The USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is extending much-needed emergency credit to farm operators in these areas.

Emergency credit is slated for farmers in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, as well as other states in the Midwest. In Ohio, the FSA declared 22 counties natural disaster areas because of drought: Athens, Belmont, Fairfield, Fayette, Gallia, Guernsey, Harrison, Highland, Hocking, Jackson, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Pickaway, Pike, Ross, Vinton and Washington.

The drought in this tri-state region forced premature harvest of withered crops and depleted hay and feed reserves that had been stored for winter. Many farmers in these states cannot keep watering troughs full, with many having to truck water in from off the farm. Some of the corn that usually would wait until the end of September to be harvested was harvested earlier. The lack of rainfall the past five months stressed crops to the point that they stopped getting bigger and focused on making sure their seed would be complete enough to germinate next spring.

September was a very dry month for Ohio. So dry, it’s the worst drought the state has seen since U.S. Drought Monitor records began in 2000.

“The effect will be long-lasting,” said Ty Higgins, director of communications for the Ohio Farm Bureau.

Indeed it will, said Aaron Wilson, Ohio State University climatologist.

“It’s going to take time to replenish the soil statewide,” Wilson said. “If you look at some of the precipitation deficits in parts of southeastern counties of Noble and Guernsey, for instance, you’re looking at 12 to 15 inches of precipitation deficit and then you add the loss due to evaporation. There’s a big chunk of the water budget missing.”

Wilson is an authority figure on ag weather in the Buckeye state. Wilson uses his expertise in Ohio weather and climate to assess hydrologic conditions across the state, helping to coordinate the state’s weekly contribution to the U.S. Drought Monitor activities at the National Drought Mitigation Center.

“What we need is one active winter season,” Wilson said. “We’ve begun to see this. As temperatures begin to cool things on the surface look better and green up, but we know that the soil moisture is still not there at depth. What we really need are several weeks of two to three weather systems that bring us light to moderate rainfall. We need this over several weeks and that will help moisten the soil for the upcoming season.

“We’re looking at the forecast and there are signs that the winter will be better than average. Because it’s a La Nina year it typically means that overall conditions turn wetter than average, particularly after the first of the year in the months of January, February and March. That’s what we’re hanging our hats on right now. We hope by April we’ve replenished the moisture in the soil, but I doubt we’ll replenish it all. It’s hard to replace soil moisture when you have a hot summer up ahead.”

Wilson adds that snow is a good form of surface moisture but fears that heavy winter rains on hard frozen ground will result in runoffs.

“This winter if we have above average temperatures the soil will thaw during the day and water can percolate,” he said.

Thirty counties in Kentucky have been declared a Primary Natural Disaster Area due to drought conditions and are eligible for emergency loans: Anderson, Bath, Boone, Boyle, Bracken, Campbell, Carroll, Clark, Fayette, Fleming, Franklin, Gallatin, Grant, Harrison, Henry, Jessamine, Kenton, Mason, Menifee, Mercer, Montgomery, Oldham, Owen, Pendleton, Powell, Robertson, Scott, Trimble, Washington and Woodford.

Precipitation in Kentucky prior to Nov. 8 was spotty and resulted in drought conditions that primarily affected soil moisture and vegetative health. In some areas the drought has impacted agricultural water needs and increased the risk of wildfires.

Jerry Brotzge, state climatologist and director of the Kentucky Climate Center, said he expects drought conditions to continue in the near future.

“Looking ahead, seasonal forecasts offer a mixed bag for Kentucky,” Brotzge said. “We had below normal precipitation for October, whereas the three-month fall outlook forecasts equal chances for above-or-below-normal precipitation.”

Counties in Indiana declared to receive emergency credit are Dearborn, Decatur, Fayette, Franklin, Jefferson, Jennings, Ohio, Ripley, Rush, Switzerland and Union.

State officials in Indiana are looking into a number of wells in northern Indiana that have gone dry. Private wells of more than a dozen homes, as well as a few farms, near the Jasper County town of Parr have done dry, leaving residents with the costly prospect of drilling a new, deeper well. Some simply blame the lingering drought while others blame a sprawling dairy farm and area farmers who irrigate their fields as the cause.

Six counties in Illinois have been designated as Primary Natural Disaster areas due to drought: Boone, DeKalb, Lake, Cook, Kane and McHenry.

Following a top five wettest July in Illinois, the tap shut off in August and the first half of September. Most of southern Illinois and parts of northeast and western Illinois saw less than two inches of rain since Aug. 1. However, recent rains across the state the past three weeks were a welcome sight amid soil moisture concerns. Roughly 40 percent of the state was in moderate drought.

As of Nov. 8, most of Middle Tennessee was experiencing drought conditions. Extreme drought was observed in the counties of Giles, Lincoln, Maury, Marshall, Bedford and Moore. Severe drought was the designation for Franklin County while moderate drought was observed in Davidson, Robertson and Sumner counties.

“I would classify our drought, especially in southern Middle Tennessee, as a triple dip drought,” said Dr. Andrew Joyner, Tennessee’s official climatologist. “You had a very dry, top 10 dry June, top 10, maybe top five dry August, and then definitely a top five dry October.”

Joyner said the brief rains from hurricanes Francine and Helene in Middle Tennessee only masked the overall dryness of the season.