An Upstate drought ended in January. For farmers, the ramifications lasted for months.

Debbie Webster plants four pastures’ worth of grass each fall to feed the horses, cows, sheep and goats that live on her farm in Oconee County. By February, her winter grasses would usually be about six to eight inches tall, the perfect size to help nourish each of her animals.

But this February, her winter grasses had barely reached two inches.

A fall drought in the Upstate forced Webster to plant her winter grasses in December last year. It’s the latest she’s ever planted, she said. She knew trying to grow grass out of the parched soil would be a waste of energy, money and seeds.

Livestock farmers typically sow plants animals can graze on throughout the year, referred to as cover crops, late in the fall and during the spring. But when farmers face a drought, planting times can get pushed and throw off the cycle.

A drought’s impact goes far beyond short grasses. Sometimes, there isn’t enough water for seeds to sprout, forcing farmers to plant again later in the season. Other times, farmers will have to supplement hay to feed their livestock. Both hurdles can cost thousands of dollars.

The 2023 drought followed a pattern of drier summers in the Upstate over the last 120 years. As the global temperature continues to increase, droughts could happen more often and become even more detrimental and more costly.

For Webster, the 2023 drought meant spending $7,000 more on hay than she did in 2022.

After nearly four months, on Jan. 11, the state’s Drought Response Committee declared South Carolina counties drought-free. Still, the negative impacts of drought continued for Upstate farmers for months to come.

Last year, Webster said she spent months in the fall waiting for rain. She debated whether she should just sow her cover crops and hope for the best. When the rain finally came, she leaped into action. She spent 20-hour days in her pastures planting as much seed as she could before the weather got too cold for it to grow.

"In the summer when it was so hot and there was a drought, I knew not to plant my winter forage because it would be useless to throw it out in the middle of a drought hoping it'll rain," she said. "I don't have that much faith."

Still, some local farmers are taking action to address drought and adapt to changing weather patterns in their way.

'Our summers are drier and drier every year.' A drought may technically be over, but dry conditions aren't

Before she began farming, Webster trained horses until she broke her neck in a car accident. She started a therapeutic horse-riding program after that. Around the same time, she began experimenting with raw sheep and goat milk production in search of a remedy for her daughter’s stomach issues. Her dairy farm formed naturally around the animals she kept.

Webster and her family moved from Mauldin to Oconee where she now runs Whispering Pines Farm full time. She teaches farming and self-sustainability classes, raises animals and makes her own cheeses and dairy products. She branded her favorite cheese "Tres Amigos," for the trio of sheep’s, cow’s and goat’s milk it’s made with.

Like many farmers, hay is a critical crop to supplement her animals’ nutrition when there’s less grass available.

Allen Kellett, a third-generation farmer in Simpsonville, raises beef cattle. Like Webster, hay is a key to supporting his farm. He grows it for his cows and sells it to other farmers around the Upstate.

Kellett’s farm has been a family affair since 1938 when his grandfather bought it and eventually passed it on to his father. Kellett now maintains the 620 acres of land in addition to working full-time at a local bottled water and coffee distributor.

He hopes his son will take over the farm for him someday.

Kellett remembers a bad drought coming along every five to six years when he was in his 20s and 30s, but he sees less rain these days than he did when he was younger.

"It seems like our summers are drier and drier every year. I’m afraid that that's going to keep progressing," he said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Data measures the average rainfall for each county based on 100 years of data. In the Upstate specifically, rainfall has been below average between June and August for most of the past decade.

Over the last few years, Kellett has started setting more hay aside ahead of the winter season to feed his cows, who he affectionately calls his "pasture puppies."

"It's almost to the point where I prepare for a drought every year now," Kellett said. "For the past couple of years, I've been boosting that amount by 20% just to be safe. Some people call me crazy, but I tend to take care of my cows better than I care of myself."

Last summer wasn’t the hottest Webster or Kellett have ever experienced. However, both farmers felt the drought began well before it was officially declared.

Statewide droughts are declared by South Carolina’s Drought Response Committee, which monitors conditions across the state. It’s chaired by the State Climatology Office and includes five state agencies and 48 local stakeholders.

In October 2023, the committee reported that 23 of South Carolina’s 46 counties met the conditions for a drought. But Webster said she noticed conditions were drier than usual as early as June.

"I hate to tell you guys, but you’re like six months off," Webster said. "It's been pretty bad."

It’s not uncommon for farmers to see the effects of drought before the state officially declares one, said State Climatologist Hope Mizzell, who works with the Drought Response Committee.

The committee declares a drought after lakes and streams experience lower water levels, wildfire threats increase, less rain occurs and the soil gets drier over time. The Drought Response Committee looks at the state’s water resources as a whole, like available drinking water and water supply for firefighters. Rain is just one piece of the puzzle.

"We may just be going into the first level of drought according to the Drought Response Committee, and it may be way past that for our farmers, who might be experiencing severe drought," Mizzell said.

Emergency assistance helps, but droughts can cost thousands

The longer farmers experience dry soil, the more expensive a drought can be.

Farmers face a loss in income for crops that don’t grow, but livestock farmers also struggle with feeding their animals without cover crops during a drought. Farmers typically use a combination of hay and grass in the winter. With the cover crop struggling, however, farmers have to buy more hay to make sure their animals are fed.

For Webster, relying solely on hay to feed her animals was costly.

In South Carolina, the average bale of hay costs about $70, according to USDA data provided to the Greenville News.

In 2022, Webster spent $5,100 on hay for the whole year. But just since drier conditions started to affect her farm last June, she’s spent more than $12,000.

Nationally, lawmakers recognized the financial setback farmers can face when droughts occur.

In 2008, the federal Farm Bill created a USDA program called the Livestock Forage Disaster Program to financially assist livestock farmers after natural disasters, including drought. After eight consecutive weeks under severe drought conditions, as determined by federal guidelines, livestock farmers can receive money to help them feed their animals while they’re forced to spend more on hay.

Farmers in eight South Carolina counties, including Kellett and Webster, were eligible for emergency funding through the Farm Service Agency’s program for last year’s drought.

Kellett said he received an allotted amount per animal through the program for the number of days the drought went on. The payment was intended to offset what it cost to feed them.

He said he was grateful, but it didn’t cover all the damage the drought did to his farm.

"It's better than nothing," he said.

Since the program was created in 2008, there were only four years in South Carolina where assistance wasn’t offered in at least one county, according to data provided to the News.

Kellett didn’t have to buy hay from other farmers since he produced his own, but each bale he saved for his cattle took away from inventory he was able to sell. If the drought hadn’t hindered his winter grass, he estimates he could have sold about 40 more bales instead of saving them for his livestock.

"If it doesn't rain during the time period that the farmers are growing the hay and the crops, that's a significant impact to them and their livelihood," Mizzell said.

Warmer temperatures in the Upstate could mean more droughts

Even once rain does come, soil doesn’t immediately get healthy again.

Clemson hydrologist Prakash Khedun studies water and its movement around the planet. He said it takes time for moisture to saturate the ground again after a drought.

"The drier it is, the longer it will take. It’s thirsty land," Khedun said. "You need more rainfall to really saturate that."

According to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, more than 65% of farms in South Carolina experienced dry or very dry conditions in their top layer of soil in November.

Even though the drought may be declared over, the effects may linger a bit longer, Khedun said.

As Kellett drove around his property in February, he pointed out his two-inch crops in each of his pastures.

"I mean, it was fertilized. Everything was done appropriately. It was put in under right time of the year. It's just, we didn't have the soil moisture because of that dry spell we had," he said. "We hit that drought, and everybody already had everything planted for about a month. Then it started raining and didn't do any good."

Kellett said he doesn’t see the same rain patterns that he did as a kid when his grandfather owned the farm.

"A lot of people think climate change is crazy. But I mean, when I was a kid, we had periods of rain where it rained three or four days in a row, all rain, and now we don't have that," he said.

According to a December report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 50% of the Southeastern U.S. was in a drought by the end of the fall of 2023.

As temperatures across the globe continue to increase, drought becomes more likely.

While Khedun said scientists are cautious about blaming weather events on climate change, warmer temperatures pose a drought risk. The planet experienced its warmest year on record in 2023. Rising temperatures over the last several centuries caused by greenhouse gases can cause the atmosphere to hold onto water longer.

"Because the weather is getting warmer, there's a high likelihood that changing climate could have contributed to this," he said.

Studies in South Carolina have shown that, over the last century, the Upstate in particular has witnessed higher temperatures in the spring and winter, as well as decreased rainfall in the summer. A study of the Southeastern United States also showed that rainfall in the region is becoming more intense and occurring for shorter periods.

For several Upstate weather stations, including Anderson Regional Airport and Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport, 2023 was the driest fall on record, according to data from the State Climatology Office provided to the News.

To date, declared droughts have not consistently increased, but warmer weather has. Mizzell said that a continued rise in temperature could mean that the impact of droughts will worsen.

"There is certainly concern that rising temperatures, which we know we have been experiencing, that would certainly likely exacerbate agricultural as well as hydrologic drought," Mizzell said.

Moving forward: Kellett fights for change, Webster works to adapt

Heavy rainfall in the early months of 2024 helped alleviate some of the dry soil for farmers, and pastures in South Carolina are healthier, according to USDA monthly crop reports.

Six months after the typical planting season, Kellett’s cows are finally able to graze in his pastures. He’s sold almost all of his hay.

No matter how hard farming gets, he said he’s committed to it. He often says "Farmers are the biggest gamblers on the planet."

This fall, he will spend a weekend planting winter grass seeds across his pastures all over again. In the meantime, he’s running for a seat in the South Carolina House of Representatives for the 28th District, which serves southern Greenville County. He hopes to bring the challenges farmers experience directly to the statehouse chambers.

Two counties away, Webster will continue teaching classes to curious residents who want to understand how to make and grow their food. She said her grasses are finally growing enough that most of her animals can eat it.

She’s also focused on adjusting to nature’s changes to keep her animals healthy.

Webster practices what she calls "climate-smart" agriculture. By her definition, climate-smart agriculture means she bases what she does around weather patterns rather than traditional planting seasons.

"When we had the drought, I didn't plant the seed at the recommended stage that you’re supposed to do it, because it would be futile to throw expensive seed out in hard dusty ground," she said.

Still, despite the income losses, the crop struggles and the fuss over the animals, Webster is committed to her farm, no matter what weather changes they endure. Working among the animals is healing, she said.

She believes that helping people reconnect with nature through her farm classes will also teach them how to care for the environment around them. As for her farm, she’ll keep adjusting her techniques as needed.

"In our little neck of the woods here, we're watching the change and we try to be good stewards of the land and the soil," she said.

Sarah Swetlik covers climate change and environmental issues in South Carolina's Upstate for The Greenville News. Reach her at [email protected] or on X at @sarahgswetlik.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: SC was declared drought-free. Upstate farmers are still struggling.