Drought Emergencies Spread Across the US Southeast as Farmers Run Short on Feed

22 September 2026, Virginia, United States: Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger declared a state of emergency on September 17, 2026, to address severe and persistent drought conditions that have left cattle farmers across the state critically short of hay and pasture, days after the US Department of Agriculture fast-tracked a separate natural disaster designation for four drought-hit counties in Florida. The twin actions point to a worsening moisture deficit across the US Southeast just as farmers head into winter feeding season with depleted reserves.

Spanberger’s Executive Order 21 responds to drought conditions that have persisted since last winter, with southern Virginia along the North Carolina border remaining under extreme drought and some areas reporting hay yield losses of up to 70 percent. State officials estimate a statewide hay shortfall of roughly 500,000 tons. The order temporarily exempts oversized hay deliveries from standard transportation width restrictions for 30 days starting October 1, while leaving weight limits unchanged, and authorises state agencies to coordinate emergency support for 45 days.

“This waiver will help us move critical hay resources more quickly so farms can prepare for the months ahead,” Spanberger said in announcing the order. Brandon Reeves, executive director of the Virginia Cattlemen’s Association, said extreme drought conditions across the state “have left cattle producers without the forage stocks needed” heading into winter, forcing many to draw down reserves and buy supplemental hay earlier than usual.

Florida’s fast-track disaster designation

A day earlier, on September 16, the USDA’s Farm Service Agency designated Escambia, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties in Florida as primary natural disaster areas due to drought, using its fast-track process reserved for counties meeting specific US Drought Monitor thresholds, either eight or more consecutive weeks of severe (D2) drought, or any period of extreme (D3) or exceptional (D4) drought. The designation makes farmers in those counties, along with eight contiguous Florida counties and two adjoining Alabama counties, eligible for FSA emergency loans to cover essential equipment, livestock replacement, operational reorganisation or debt refinancing, with applications open until April 26, 2027.

Neither declaration on its own represents a nationally catastrophic event, but together they illustrate a pattern that has been building through the 2026 growing season: drought stress concentrated in the Southeast even as USDA’s most recent national crop report, released September 11, trimmed the national corn yield estimate to 178.5 bushels per acre, down 2.2 bushels from August, citing weather stress in parts of the Corn Belt. Livestock producers, who rely on pasture and hay rather than harvested grain, are often the first to feel a dry season’s effects and the last to recover, since rebuilding a depleted cattle herd or restoring pasture health takes considerably longer than a single good rainfall.

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