Funding available for landowners affected by last year’s drought.
The USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service recently announced funding available for landowners across Alabama who were affected by last year’s “extreme drought,” including pockets of Lee County and surrounding counties that are considered high-priority areas.
Funds for farmers and landowners in Lee and Chambers counties will be distributed through the Opelika field office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).
The NRCS has funding available year-round for livestock water and grass planting assistance, but Rohling said this year additional funding was added to help the larger number of farms affected by the unusually dry year.
“The biggest problem we had in Lee County was just the lack of water,” Rohling said.
“When those go dry, they run out of water for the cows,” Rohling said.
Though Garrett Dixon, a Lee County farmer with about 250 acres of cotton and 50 acres of pasture, didn’t have to sell off his cattle, he had to purchase hay for feed around December last year because his pasture didn’t produce like it had in the past.
“I try to plant winter grazing for my cows in the pasture but it was too dry.
Rather than letting cattle graze across the entire pasture, he fences them into smaller acreages to stagger fields getting grazed and fields growing.
Landowners in Lee and Chambers counties interested in receiving funding should visit the NRCS office in at 600 S. 7th St. in Opelika where applications are available, Rohling said.