WASHINGTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) – Drought conditions across Tennessee are impacting many, including cattle farmers.
“It’s just one of the toughest springs I can remember in all of my years farming,” said Mark Baird, a cattle farmer in Piney Flats and one of the many farmers who is dealing with drought conditions in Tennessee. “Farmers are experiencing slow grass growth, low water marks for flow of water for cattle to go to on their own. No rain. Crops are not coming up. The fertilizer that has been put down has not been dampened and absorbed into the soil.”
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Baird also said the cattle are having a hard time adjusting to the sturdier grass due to a lack of rain.
“The cattle usually take a little bit of time to adjust from the lush grass into the more sturdy grass that we’re getting now because of the rains not coming,” Baird said. “So, we’re having to rotate our pasture fields in earlier now than we’d normally, or because of lack of rain. They graze the spot, we pull them off, we put them on another spot. We try to let it catch up, then we put them back.”…