LaFAYETTE, Ga. – Mother Nature dealt a blow to Southern farmers in a late-season freeze that hit Georgia’s peach and blueberry crops but continuing wet weather has driven out drought and even dry conditions from most of the tri-state region.
Across the region fields are green and hay, straw, corn, wheat, rye and other crops have rebounded considerably from 2016’s historic drought. Walker County, Ga., remained at the center of the extreme drought bull’s-eye until December. Even in April, parts of Northeast Georgia were still the driest areas in the U.S.
“It was the driest year that I can remember in my 80 years,” beef farmer Benny Cross said last week, standing ankle-deep in hay cut to replenish supplies he used up in 2016. The Cross family usually keeps an extra barn full of hay for emergencies, but they used it up last year rather than buy hay like most other beef farmers did.
Cross’ father, Ulyess Cross, bought 365 mostly wooded acres and moved from Harrison in 1939 after the Chickamauga Dam opened. The family operated a dairy from 1947 to 2007.
Now it’s beef cattle, and that means lots of hay harvesting thanks to a rainy spring.