HALL COUNTY, Ga. — The extreme drought is devastating for Georgia farmers. The ground is too dry and too hard to plow.
Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen was at Jaemor Farms in Hall County, where local growers say they’ve never seen an April like this.
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Over the course of his family’s 114 years in farming, Drew Echols says there has been a lot of dry weather, but never this dry, this early.
“Probably the worst one that we’ve ever seen. Historically, droughts turn around. But they never start this early in the growing season,” Echols said.
The ground at Jaemor Farms in Hall County is hard, so hard it can tear up the tillage equipment.
“It’s almost like steel on steel. You get friction. It slows the tractor down. It wears the disc out,” Echols said. “And costs a farmer a lot of money.”
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Nearly all of the state’s 10 million acres of farmland are in drought conditions.
“Doesn’t matter where you live in our state. This impacts every Georgian,” Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said.
Harper has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to declare an emergency, which can provide Georgia farmers with low-interest loans and other federal benefits.
Echols says it can help, but what will really help is rain and lots of it, soon.
“We need an inch a week on Saturday night. We really need an inch a week to an inch and a half,” Echols said.
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