Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation members along with President Mike McCormick, South Mississippi Vice President Jeff Easterling and MFBF staff met with United States Senators and Representatives and their staff members in Washington D.C. last week to help them understand the effects of last year’s drought in our state.
The Mississippi Farm Bureau delegation visited not only our own state’s members and staff members, Congressmen Michael Guest, Trent Kelly and Mike Ezell and Senators Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde Smith, but Senators and Congress men and women who chair or lead committees or sub-committees related to agriculture including House Majority Leader, Congressman Steve Scalise, Georgia Congressman Sanford Bishop and Maryland Congressman Andy Harris.
Beginning in the southwest corner of the state in July of 2023 and expanded north and east, by November 14, all 82 counties in Mississippi were categorized as a D3 (extreme drought) or D4 (exceptional drought) by the National Drought Monitor. These conditions affected all commodities in the state from cattle to row crops to timber.
Mississippi cattle producers have been impacted greatly by the loss of grazing and hay production for winter. Many herds have been sold due to a lack of resources and winter forage.For the producers that decided to keep their cattle, the USDA Livestock Forage Program (LFP) has been a lifeline.
Row crops in South Mississippi were heavily impacted by the drought of 2023. Most of the impacts were seen beginning at the Interstate 20 (Jackson area) area and worsening further southward as you travel the state. Many producers saw a total crop loss from the drought. Mississippi State University estimates a loss of revenue of $43 million to our state’s major row crops from the drought of 2023.
Commercial timber operations were greatly impacted and will continue to be impacted by the historic drought seen in 2023. Timber tracts with limited pine beetle infestations were amplified and exacerbated by the drought and the stress placed on healthy stands of timber experienced during excessive heat. Current estimates by the U.S. Forestry Service and the Mississippi Forestry Commission show a total of 65,000 acres of private commercial timber totally destroyed by the combination of severe drought and pine beetle infestations
The LFP program triggers a direct payment to livestock grazers to pay for loss of forage when a portion of a county triggers a D2 status for 8 consecutive weeks, triggers at any point a D3 status, as well as any trigger at D4 status. As of February 10, USDA has issued more than $58 million in payments in Mississippi to livestock producers for the loss of forage from the 2023 drought. Producers used much of those funds to purchase feed and hay stocks from other states.
Among the requests relating to drought, the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation delegation asked members to consider assistance to land owners in clean up, removal, and replanting by making key adjustments to the USDA Emergency Forestry Restoration Program (EFRP) that will incentivize timber owners to clean up destroyed tracts, their consideration to include ad-hoc disaster assistance for row crop producers in South Mississippi and request $40 million be considered for Mississippi in future appropriation measures and as Congress considers the Farm Bill, please make sure the USDA Livestock Forage Program (LFP) program is authorized again.