WASHINGTON, D.C. — The situation is getting desperate on Ohio farms amid one of the worst droughts in the state’s history.

“They're seeing yields well below 50% for their corn compared to last year,” said Ty Higgins, the Ohio Farm Bureau’s director of communications. “Wells are dry and their springs have dried up. They're feeding corn because they don't have the adequate supplies of hay, and in worst-case scenarios, many farmers are selling their livestock because they can't afford to water or feed them.”

Ohio lawmakers on Capitol Hill are working to get relief to farmers, warning the drought could have far-reaching consequences.

“I grew up working on a family farm and we used to always get two cuttings of hay. Most years we’d get three. A farmer in central Ohio told us he’s getting one and a half,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. “That affects prices of feeding the cattle. It’s going to mean higher food prices, and it’s going to mean some farmers go out of business.”

To prevent that, Brown sent a letter to the Department of Agriculture calling to temporarily allow emergency haying and grazing on farmland in southeast Ohio protected under the Conservation Reserve Program. Due to the ongoing drought, much of the state already qualifies for emergency grazing, according to data from the USDA’s Farm Service Agency.

Brown is also calling for longer-term strategies to address climate change.

“You can’t ‘cause and effect’ exactly, but this is the biggest drought since the 1930 dustbowl era. We’ve got to make sure that we deal with climate, medium and long term. But we need to get help to farmers,” Brown said.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said the drought raised the urgency of passing a new five-year farm bill. Congress last renewed the farm bill in 2018. In 2023, lawmakers gave themselves an additional year to pass a replacement, but have been unable to reach agreement on several areas.

An updated farm bill proposed in the House would include a wider safety net for farmers of certain crops affected by severe weather.

“We have been pushing very hard. We have historic investments when it comes to crop insurance, which would be very helpful right now in our state and the farm safety net and many other initiatives that we are going to continue to push for,” said Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio.

Miller, who sits on the House Agriculture Committee, said he was still hopeful a new farm bill could pass by the end of the year.

Much of the farm bill technically expires Sept. 30, but most farmers won’t immediately feel the effects. Many programs for drought assistance and crop insurance continue automatically.