Not as bad as it might have been
Farmers and scientists say major crops haven’t suffered irreparable harm, yet. Isolated storms have helped a bit, but it’s mostly because of the extremely mild a winter and early spring. Big crops like corn and wheat were in the ground early and got far enough along in their growth cycles to resist the drought by the time it hit in earnest in May.  

The micro level
But that’s looking at weather, soil and other conditions on the large scale. For small growers with a couple dozen acres, water problems are much more localized, and can be much more critical.

Ami Gignac of Breakneck Acres, an organic farm in Portage County, says the dry spell actually helped them. “Because a lot of our ground holds water, we’ve struggled getting into the fields as early as some. So consequently, we’re blessed right now to have the ability to keep going.”

But she says other small operators have different ground conditions and a different story.

“I’ve seen a lot of people lose different corps.  I know of another organic farmer I’ve worked with has completely lost his crop of sweat peas.”

Making up for the drought isn't cheap
Jeff Haynman is a small farmer near Minerva, where Stark, Carroll and Columbiana counties come together.  He’s also an agriculture business advisor and credit consultant for small farmers.

He says he lost an early planting of sweet corn and it was a costly loss.  “Some of it we had to tear up and start again. The seed just did not grow because of no moisture. Seed for sweet corn is anywhere from $200 to $400 an acre. You throw $160 an acre fertilizer on it, too.  And it takes four hours to irrigate one acre and every inch we put on adds $40 an acre to the cost.”

Livestock losses, too
Other kinds of farmers are being hurt in more indirect ways. Leah Miller has a small sheep farm on the Summit-Wayne county line, and is director of the Ohio Institute for Small Farmers. 

She says farmers with livestock are hard pressed by a lack of water on pastures and open fields. It’s worst for dairy farmers.

“They’re very dependent on their pastures, and grasses and legumes that grow. And the shortage of rain that we’ve had shows up in their milk buckets on a day-to-day basis. 

“Because of the need to purchase feed -- and some of the forages that we would normally buy are also in short supply -- prices are going to impact them pretty significantly.”

Jim Haynman says the lack of water for feed crops carries the effects of the drought on down what we might call the farm-business supply chain.

“Even the hay farmers, they’re making a cutting and they’re waiting for it to grow again. Guys are going to have limited forage this year to feed their cows, whether they’re a big farmer or a little farmer.”

Hedging bets 
But, Haynman says, farmers can mitigate some of the financial effects of things like a long dry period.

“Protection the farmers can do for corn, soybeans and wheat is to buy crop insurance. And that’s a really good tool to use if you have storms or drought or hail.  Then, you know, you have an insurance policy to help cover your catastrophe…and at least get your investment back.”

Harest on Amish farmers
Leah Miller says state and federal programs can help. But, she says they won’t help one large segment of the northeast Ohio farming community.

“I work significantly with the Amish population in Ohio, that are dairy grazers, and they do not take advantage of financial resources we might have from , say, the federal government. So it becomes more (of) an economic impact in that ommunity.  But, even with our conventional community, when you’re having to buy additional food for your livestock, and your farm isn’t producing what you need for them, it becomes a real burden.”

And this comes at a time when Ohio’s Amish population already was suffering the economic blows of two massive financial frauds.

A big part of Ohio 

Ohio’s food and agriculture economy is worth an estimated $93 billion a year. And the definition of farming in this state extends beyond traditional food crops to include orchards and even Christmas tree farms.

Miller, who has some tree-based —well, bush-based— crops on her own small farm, says those are just as affected by the weather as the others.

“It goes back to what I was talking about early about the soils, and about the grasses and the forage.  And it’s the same thing. For example, I have blueberries, and what you need is that root structure and that moisture to create the strength in the tree or in the bush.”

Look at the tassels
Still, the farmers are looking for signs for optimism.

Even as much of Ohio heads into another dry week, Jim Haynman says the drought has not yet taken the state’s agricultural community past the point of no return. And, he says the corn crop is a place to see if there’s hope for recovery this year.

“Depending on the stage of the corn production,… if it’s in the pollination stage right now, where the tassels are out and pollen is dropping on the silk to form the ears, (if) it so dry, we’ll have poor pollination and a poor-quality year.
“But, if we get some rain, some of these guys, if their corn isn’t tasseling yet, if we get some timely rain, we could pull it out.”

 The National Weather Service’s latest 90-day forecast for Ohio and surrounding states shows intensifying drought to our south, with Northeast Ohio staying about the same as it has been lately, through September.