EDWARDS — Already dampened by a wet spring, expectations for the local hay harvest have diminished further amid unusually dry conditions in June and July, area farmers and Mississippi State University agricultural specialists say.

In Bovina, the weather conditions helped reduce the late June “cut,” or harvest, of hay on Mary Jane Wooten’s farm from its normal yield, about 5,000 square bales, to nothing.

“We’ve only had two days of rain since June 1,”  Wooten said before last week’s rains. She’s been farming hay with Matt Fant of Vicksburg at Silver Creek Equestrian for the past five years.  “It’s hard to lose a cutting financially, and it’s hard for the people who are depending on us for hay for the winter.”

Rocky Lemus, a forage specialist with the MSU Extension Service, said Wooten’s case is not exceptional in Mississippi. The hay growing season runs from spring through early September, with three to four cuts along the way.  Lemus said results from this year’s first cut — which typically occurs in mid-May — were 20 percent below last year’s yields.

The Drought Monitor, a national survey of drought conditions relied upon by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, last week showed Warren County and most of Hinds as enduring “abnormally dry” weather.  Areas of Mississippi more to the southwest are seeing a moderate drought, according to the monitor.

The weather turned dry on the heels of a spring that was abnormally rainy, which delayed harvesting due to the necessity that hay be dry before it is cut and baled. 

“We lost the whole month of May,” said Rodney Edwards, an Issaquena County resident who has grown hay near Edwards for the last five years on top of farming rice and soybeans in the Delta. 

Wooten and Fant sell most of their hay crop to horse owners, according to Wooten, but a recent release from MSU’s Office of Agricultural Communications raised concerns about how cattle might suffer due to the drop-off in hay production.

Lemus said that a hay shortage could lead to overgrazed pastures, which, in turn, “could cause animal health issues, since they can be more prone to parasites in the soil,” Lemus said.

Even if the weather turns this year, Lemus said hay producers face more stubborn obstacles to long-term profitability, including increases in fertilizer prices and declines in the number of Mississippi farmers raising cattle.

Those were among the factors that persuaded Edwards to quit full-time hay farming in rural Hinds County this year, along with an increase in the price of the fuel on which his agricultural machinery runs.

These days, according to Edwards, there are two ways for hay farmers to make money: selling internationally or “chasing droughts” by providing hay to places where dry weather has made growing it difficult.

Unwilling to do the former, Edwards last fall contemplated engaging in the latter course of business.  He said his son, Rod, who helps run “the financial side” of the Edwards’ farming operations, had made contact with potential buyers in Japan and the United Arab Emirates. The Edwardses would need $500,000 to $1 million from outside investors, Rodney Edwards said, but the potential profits stood in the millions.

But the costs of fuel and fertilizer, combined with the annoyance of Edwards’ 65-mile commute between Hinds and Issaquena counties dissuaded the 56-year-old farmer from trying to link up the 300-acre spread off Chichester Road in Edwards with Dubai and Tokyo.

“The work,” he said, “just wasn’t worth the reward.”  

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Contact Ben Bryant at bbryant@vicksburgpost.com