In mid-October, the rolling pastures at Dave Norford’s 3,000-acre cattle farm in rural Albemarle County were a deep, lush green.
“It’s fabulous,” Norford said, as he motored past a herd of grazing cows in his utility vehicle. A few months earlier, the land didn’t look like this.
For much of the year, these pastures were a dry brown. The grasses struggled and eventually withered under the strain of one of the longest and most devastating droughts Virginia has seen in decades.
The drought started a full year ago in October 2025 and persisted through the spring, summer, and, in some parts of southern Virginia, it continues today. Across the state, wells dried up, water reservoirs sank worrisomely low, and cattle pastures baked under the relentless sun…