Farming doesn't get much tougher than it's been this year. Freezing temperatures followed warm weather in the spring. Then came the long summer drought.
Still, Franklin County farmers like Doyle Devers, of Harvieland Road, wouldn't consider bailing out of agriculture.
"I'm going to stay in it one way or another," Devers said Tuesday morning while checking on several practically dry ponds on his farms. "It's in the blood. And once you get it in the blood, you can't get it out."
He works one day a week at a stockyard in Owen County to help supplement his farm income, "and I may have to take another part-time job or something."
Franklin County and Kentucky farmers like Devers, struggling to cope with a prolonged drought can seek emergency loans to help offset crop losses after state officials received word Tuesday of a federal disaster declaration due to the dry spell.
Agricultural officials welcomed the designation but said it was the first step in providing relief from the combination of a spring freeze along with the drought.
"Our livestock producers in particular need immediate, direct assistance for emergency water and feed supplies, to try and protect as much of our livestock industry as possible," said Marshall Coyle, president of the Kentucky Farm Bureau.
The disaster designation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture allows farmers in the state's $4 billion-a-year industry to seek emergency assistance, including low-interest loans to help pay for essential farm and living expenses.
Franklin County farmers interested in applying for the assistance should contact their local Farm Service Agency office in the Bogie building next door to the Franklin County Extension Office building on Lakeview Court.
The Franklin County FSA office is open each Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information call Rita Jones at 695-5203 on Wednesdays or 1-502-863-2439 on other weekdays.
"I guess I've sold 27 cows this year that I would not have sold if it hadn't been so dry," Devers said. "I sold some of my spring calves about two weeks ago. They were probably 75 to 100 pounds lighter than they would have been last year just because their mamas didn't have as much to eat and didn't produce as much milk.
"On one farm, I've hauled 300 gallons of water every day to one herd of cows. On this (Seven Oaks Farm), where he lives, I've been feeding the cows a little corn gluten and soy hulls as a supplement every morning because the only thing out here in the fields are some weeds sticking up. It's greened up a little since last week's rain. Before that, it looked like a desert."
Devers said he's rented extra farms to "take up some of the slack." Altogether he farms about 800 acres. One 250-acre farm "runs all the way to the Kentucky River," he said. "We moved the cattle in here where they could get to the river to drink. The water (in an almost dry pond) is so stagnant, what little is here isn't any good."
He said he wasted about $3,000 on fertilizer this year.
"I fertilized one farm early, then the freeze came and stunted the grass. Then I came behind that and fertilized my mother's farm and my farm. Then it turned dry, and that money was pretty much wasted."
But he remains an optimist, saying next summer will be better. Even with plenty of rain, though, "I'll have to reseed these old hills and fertilize them and help them" so the grass will come back.
If 2008 brings another dry summer, "a fellow will probably have to cut his herds by 75 percent," Devers said. "It will cripple a lot of people."
Keith Rogers, executive director of the Governor's Agricultural Policy Office, said Tuesday one estimate in July indicated losses to pastures, hay fields and other forages could range from $200 million to $500 million in Kentucky due to the freeze and drought.
That figure did not include the damage inflicted to corn, soybeans, wheat, fruit and other crops due to the double whammy of unfavorable weather.
"This most definitely will be one of the most serious droughts that Kentucky has faced in the last 20 or 30 years," Rogers said.
He said the crop damage was "spotty," with some Kentucky producers enjoying good harvests due to timely rains, while others suffered big losses.
Prospects for Kentucky's soybean farmers remained grim as harvesting continues.
A statewide crop-reporting service said this week that 53 percent of the soybean crop was poor or very poor, while 26 percent was fair, 17 percent good and 4 percent excellent.
The statewide corn harvest was 82 percent complete as of last Sunday, according to the report by the National Agricultural Statistics Service's Kentucky field office. Yields varied widely depending on the amount and timing of rain received, it said.
Eighty-two percent of the state's pastures were rated very poor or poor.
The drought is delaying some wheat planting this fall as farmers wait in hopes of rain.
The disaster declaration also would put Kentucky in line for possible assistance if Congress passes emergency legislation helping U.S. farmers beleaguered by devastating weather this year, Rogers said.
Gov. Ernie Fletcher sent a letter to the state's congressional delegation last month making a pitch for federal disaster assistance for Kentucky producers.
Coyle said that Kentucky livestock producers, for instance, need long-term help to restore pastures and cropland damaged by the drought.
"We will continue to work with our congressional delegation to secure funds that will allow that recovery work to begin as soon as possible," Coyle said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.