Ohio is no longer in extreme drought as rain over the last few months have relieved dry areas. But that doesn’t mean the damage from the historic drought is repaired.
In September, nearly 40% of the state was in exceptional or extreme drought, and 22 counties were declared federal disaster areas. Now there are no counties in the worst two drought categories.
"It might fix what we need in 2025 as far as getting those pastures adequate moisture. But many family farms that couldn't afford to feed hay to their livestock, sold some of their livestock, and so family farms had to make some really tough decisions in 2024 in order to maintain the operation, not just for the next few years, but for generations to come," said Ty Higgins, senior director of communications at the Ohio Farm Bureau. “The impacts of declining cattle herds across Ohio will be a major impact for our farmers for years to come. So it is not a short term fix when you get rain. There are implications of this drought that are going to be much, much longer lasting."
And Higgins said since agriculture is Ohio’s top industry, when farmers struggle, the state’s economy will be hit too, and higher prices will trickle down to consumers. But they might not feel the heat quite yet.
"Any time that we see a decrease in production, whether that be row, crops, or livestock, it is going to impact the consumer at some point," Higgins said. "Luckily we have many parts of Ohio that didn't really have the drought conditions that we saw in the southern and the eastern and the southeastern part of the state. They're going to be able to make up some of those supplies to Ohio consumers, so really shouldn't see too much of a price crunch in the short term."
The U.S. Drought Monitor's report released on Dec. 19 shows just under 59% is still in some form of drought, from abnormally dry to severe drought. Three months before, 30% of the state was in extreme drought, and 9.52% was in exceptional drought.
