These trees on the Webb School grounds shows the impact of the recent freeze. While some plants behave like nothing happened three weeks ago, many are still recovering from the freeze that has turned green hills black. (T-G Photo by Brian Mosely) [Click to enlarge]

Farmers and their crops are having a tough time of it this season due to a double whammy of an extended drought and an unseasonable freeze.

While many were glad to see sunny and dry weather through last winter and early spring, this area has seen so much of it that a serious drought has developed.

All of middle Tennessee is abnormally dry according to the latest U.S. drought monitor report with southern sections of the state and much of the Cumberland Plateau in the moderate drought category, and the extreme southeast corner now in severe drought.

Locally, Coffee County racked up over a 7-inch deficit from December through February and many areas across the mid-state are 30-50 percent below their normal rainfall since the beginning of this year.

University of Tennessee Extension Agent John Teague said that "it's hard to cope with the fact that you don't have any water."

Since irrigation systems are typically not used in this part of the country, farmers rely on whatever falls out of the sky, Teague explained. While some growers with strawberry crops do have the systems, the great majority of farmers do not.

"But from a field crop standpoint, the pastures ... hay production, we're totally dependent on rainfall and ground water," the agent said. While Teague didn't have the exact numbers for Bedford County, March was the sixth driest month on record since the Weather Service began keeping tabs in the late 1800's.

"We're 5 to 10 inches short of rainfall for this year," he said. Coupled with the past two seasons of dry weather and high winds, Teague said it had been "pretty devastating" to the wheat crop.

"Our hay crop has been short. Our pastures have been short," he said.

As for other crops, there has been a "surprisingly fair yield" but it would have been much better if there was rain to go along with it, Teague explained.

While rain is in the forecast for later this week, Teague said that they don't want it all at one time, but in amounts where the ground can soak up the water.

If the dry weather wasn't enough, an unseasonable freeze three weeks ago made a bad situation worse for many farmers.

The wheat crop was a total loss for grain, although the leaf and stem that can be used for livestock feed was salvageable. But if a farmer used weed control on the wheat, the cattle can't use it. Other wheat crops were harvested for straw.

As for corn that was planted in late March, it was likely killed during the freeze and has to be replanted. However, this can also be a problem since some seed corn is now being used for ethanol production. Another option is to replace corn with soybean.

The hay shortage, Teague said, is a spring crop that "is a concern at this point."

"We were coming out a winter that already had a short hay supply so this is a critical time in terms of pasture and hay for all our livestock," Teague said. Bedford County is one of the biggest for livestock in middle Tennessee.

"When you start thinking about feeding 65,000 to 75,000 head of cattle and all of the horses we have in the county, it's a big item."

The most noticeable impact of the early April freeze was on many of the area trees. Normally at this time of year, entire hillsides are full of green, but this year has seen an extreme amounts of black and brown mixed in with it.

Teague said that he saw some trees that are rebudding already, which he said was surprising, thinking it would take much longer. The trees will rebound, but not to the extent some might expect.

"They've [the trees] lost the month of March, the month of April. They'll be putting out until the end of May when most of the photosynthesis takes place," Teague said. "The time frame for the trees to do their thing has been cut by 40 percent."

The trees will be stressed that they have low food supplies in their plant bodies and have already depleted their carbohydrate reserves by putting out another round of leaves, Teague explained.

A hot, dry summer could make things worse, with some trees suffering from "die-back" where part of the tree will die. Some older and bigger trees have already experienced this due to past dry summers and could be killed completely if this summer is a repeat of the past.

Homeowners that have planted new trees for landscaping should keep and eye on them and water them at a rate of an inch of rainfall per week. For a 10 foot by 10 foot plot, that would be about 62.5 gallons of water, Teague said.

"Letting a water hole drip for a couple of minutes won't do it," he said. "They need a good soak."

Fertilizers are not recommended at this time, Teague added, due to the strain it would put on the ornamental trees.