JOHNSON COUNTY, Mo. — Farmers in Johnson County, Mo. are feeling the full force of the drought. Farmers in that area which is near Warrensburg received only a small fraction of the rain they’d typically see in the Spring and Summer.
Dale Smith looks at his corn crop and gets upset. Dale, his father Hugh and his son Clint make up three generations of farmers. They are facing one of their worst yields in decades due to one of the worst droughts in decades.
Kyle Meyer, the director of the Johnson County Missouri Farm Service Agency sees farmers in this situation every day. People like Hugh, Dale and Clint Smith are not uncommon.
They compare an average ear of corn with one from a deprived field. Even the average ear may not get full value.
The Smith family farmers don’t even know how they’ll feed their livestock this year.
“Our cattle for us aren’t worth as much because everybody’s having to pay the high price to feed them and it’s hard to- hard to work that out,” said Clint Smith.
Kyle Meyer says this drought couldn’t have come at a worse time. He says many provisions from the 2008 Farm Bill expired in September of 2011 and until congress passes a new bill, he can’t offer as much assistance to farmers in need.
