‘Flash drought’ alarms farmers, ranchers in South

Nearly 56 million people are now living in drought conditions in Southern states, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor report released Thursday.

The “flash drought” is classified as extreme in parts of Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina and Florida, according to the Drought Monitor report.

“From the arid plains of Texas to farms in Maryland, concern is spreading that cattle, cotton and corn are suffering after a summer of record highs and very little rain,” said an Associated Press story on the situation.

The drought has ravaged the pastures where cattle and other livestock feed, the AP story said.

Most of these fields are in either poor or very poor condition in Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas and West Virginia, according to the Agriculture Department’s most recent National Agricultural Statistics Service Crop Progress report, released this week. Pasture and range conditions are even worse in Virginia, where 71% of the land is in poor or very poor shape.

–The Hagstrom Report