Third-generation farmer Bennett Musselman says the Ohio drought in Pickaway County is the worst he’s seen in his 40-year-old lifetime.

“My dad, Tom, says he can’t remember it being this dry either — even in 2012,” he says. “And what makes it even worse is the farm economy. In 2012, we had bad crops, but we were able to sell $7 corn and $15 beans. We’re not near those prices, so it’s a double whammy.”

Most of southeastern Ohio was colored burnt red on USDA’s drought monitor on Aug. 27, the first time Ohio has had the worst rating, Exceptional Drought (D-4), since the establishment of the U.S. Drought Monitor.

With eight or more weeks of consecutive drought, USDA has declared 23 southeast Ohio counties and 18 neighboring counties as natural disasters, opening up an outreach of assistance through emergency loans and other federal aid programs.

Pickaway County, while more south-central Ohio and farther west than other counties burning up, is also D-4. Rain has been virtually nonexistent in most of the county. Just south and slightly west, parts of Highland, Pike and Ross counties were recently added to the D-4 area.

“We got like seven-tenths of an inch of rain [Sept. 6], and it was gone — dead dry — the next day,” explains John Hoffman, a grain farmer west of Circleville in Pickaway County who rolled out his combines the second week of September.

Just getting into harvest, his corn is running between 80 and 150 bushels per acre, down from the previous average of 190 to 210 bpa. “I had one field that was at 40 bpa,” he says.

Soybeans have been in the 20s to mid-30s, a drop from the average of 55 to 65 bpa. Wheat also was dinged some, down from 100-plus bpa to about 90 bpa this year.

All Hoffman’s crops were planted within a 10-day time frame and completed by April 29. “Which is nice, but not a good sign, as we started out dry,” he says.

Lindsay Johnson, climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center, says recent dryness can be traced back to the end of winter and the beginning of spring of this year, with the last full year having precipitation below normal.

“Ohio was very dry in February 2024, and across the Ohio River, West Virginia in early March 2024, but these areas have been very dry in June, July and now August,” she says. “So, it’s been a very rough summer for Ohio, not only the last couple weeks. Recent dryness, which has been a combination of low precipitation and high temperatures, has led to dropping stream flows and degrading soil moisture.”

Johnson says they get a lot of impactful information from looking through CMOR (Condition Monitoring Observer Reports), where anyone can share conditions where they live, including pictures.

“This allows us to hear and see what is happening on the ground,” she explains. “In the last 30 days, there have been 86 reports from Ohio. When in the portal, you can click on the different dots to read the impacts and see pictures, if provided. You can also select what type of impacts they are reporting [crop production, livestock production, municipal water supply, etc.].”

Livestock and hay situation

While there is grain production in southeastern Ohio, it is mostly known for its pastures and hay ground for livestock. “It’s an economic burden this year for our livestock guys,” Hoffman says. “There's a lot of growers who bail hay hurting.”

Some livestock farmers started feeding hay a couple months ago because pastures dried up. Musselman says, “I've talked to several of them. I’ve heard, ‘Grandpa said this spring has never run dry since he's been alive, and those springs are dry now.’ Farmers are having to take water to cattle.”

Hay is going to be a hot commodity going forward. As a member and vice president of the Ohio Soybean Association, Musselman says they’ve been talking to growers in northwest Ohio — who have a very good hay crop — about efforts to bring hay to farmers needing it.

Forecast grim for whole state

The forecast is not calling for rain. Over the past month, drought has gotten worse for the entire state, with 95% of Ohio in some kind of abnormal dryness or worse:

North of the D-4 area, rain was scarce during August. At the Zanesville Municipal Airport, for example, only 0.17 inch of rain fell in August, and 4.95 inches fell from June to August. This marks the driest August on record, and second driest summer for this location from 1946 to 2024.

Musselman, who is also a crop insurance agent for Leist Mercantile in Circleville, farms about 500 acres of corn and soybeans over 8 miles, encompassing Madison, Pickaway and Franklin counties. He reported perfect planting conditions, allowing him to finish by April 25.

“The crop came out of the ground, and everything looked really good through sidedressing nitrogen. We had a really good stand, but by the middle of July, everything went downhill quick in Pickaway County,” he says.

Rainfall, if at all, was spotty. “There were pockets of rain, as my neighbor a mile away got a little over an inch of rain and I got one-tenth,” Musselman says.

Some of his insurance customers are reporting better yields than expected, but nothing to get excited about. “One farmer said he was expecting 50 bpa of corn,” Musselman says. “It was making 90 bpa, but in the big scheme of things, that field was producing 240 bpa of corn last year. Others have reported 60 bpa on ground normally running between 220 and 240.”

Just getting into soybeans on his farm, Musselman says they were producing 34 bpa on average, compared to the high 90s last year.

His corn is faring a little better than expected. “But, we have a huge amount of variability going through the field, especially in a field that was tiled and tilled after the first of the year,” Musselman says. “The no-till corn ground was very consistent through different soil types, but watching the yield monitor on conventional-style corn with a full tillage program, it was widely variable.”

He’s worried about growers who double-cropped soybeans, which are just starting to set pods.

“Some have chosen to bail their double crops for forage because with livestock, the hay situation is terrible and the yield was not going to be there,” he says. “They got more value out of bailing it.”

Dry grain, too

Hoffman set a record this year with the driest beans he’s ever harvested — 7.7% moisture. “And it’s not just me, everyone’s running about 8%, and you want to be at 13%,” he says. “At least we are exceptional at something.”

A lot of soybeans are coming off at 8% to 9% moisture, Musselman agrees, which not only hurts yield, but also makes it hard to harvest.

“They’re so brittle,” he says. “It’s hard to set the combine because you can blow beans out the back if you don't have it set right. And then if you try to compensate for that, you can get too many pods in the tank.”

“There's such a huge variance. You could go from 14% moisture in a field to 25%, and those take different combine settings to do that efficiently and effectively,” he adds. “It's hard because you can't make those adjustments as fast as they need to happen when harvesting the crop.”

Fire threat is real

Musselman has resorted to cutting more beans at night and in the morning, shutting down in the afternoon to help with moisture loss. “And, we want to try and prevent fires, as I’ve had five reported to me in one afternoon,” he says. “There hasn’t been a combine on fire yet, but all it takes is for the combine to hit a rock, create a spark and you’ve got a field on fire.”

He has pulled one of his tender trailers, normally used for chemicals, to fields they are working in. “It’s a 1,000-gallon tank with a pump we fill with water and have on standby,” he says.

“One fire reported was by a farm shop, so they were able to pull big tillage out to circle the fire, which destroys some of the crop, but keeps it from spreading,” he explains. “One guy told me flames were higher than his tractor — probably 13-14 feet — and he could feel the heat from the fire inside his air-conditioned cab. Thankfully, they were able to put it out before the winds picked up.”

To minimize risk, Musselman says to frequently blow dust and debris off combines — not just at the end of the day. “Get out and walk around whenever you get a chance,” he adds. “Make sure there are no bearings or anything getting hot. Something devastating can happen real fast.”

Crop insurance will be valuable this year for those participating. The established base prices for 2024 yield protection and revenue protection crop insurance policies (Federal Crop Insurance or FSA’s NAP ) were $4.66 per bushel for corn and $11.55 per bushel for soybeans. Those figures are multiplied by a farm’s 10-year historical average to determine revenue. The coverage level, generally between 60% to 85%, is determined by the farmer.

Someone outside of agriculture asked Hoffman if he felt guilty about taking the crop insurance payment. “I said, ‘If you only knew the premiums I pay to carry crop insurance, no, I do not feel guilty at all,’” he says.

High input prices, low market prices and now drought, “It's going to be tough for a lot of folks this year in our area,” Musselman says.

Despite the outlook, both Musselman and Hoffman remain optimists. “We'll plan for a better year next year, and hopefully input prices fall into line with the commodity prices,” Hoffman says.

USDA emergency disaster declaration

The primary counties designated as D4 and in the primary disaster area include Athens, Belmont, Fairfield, Fayette, Gallia, Guernsey, Harrison, Highland, Hocking, Jackson, Jefferson, Madison, Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Pickaway, Pike, Ross, Vinton and Washington.

Farmers can borrow up to $500,000 with a 3.75% interest rate to restore or replace essential property, pay production costs for the disaster year, pay family living expenses, reorganize the farming operation, or refinance the farm's non-real estate debts, according to USDA.

Contiguous counties are also eligible. They include Adams, Brown, Carroll, Champaign, Clark, Clinton, Columbiana, Coshocton, Franklin, Greene, Lawrence, Licking, Meigs, Scioto, Tuscarawas and Union counties.

Only farm owners or tenant farmers who intend to continue farming are eligible.

Eligible farmers can apply on USDA's website.