Jim Moss has raised cattle for decades. He’s experienced good times and lean times, economic upturns and downturns. He’s handled everything the industry, the market and the weather could throw at him. He’s been buffeted at times, but he remains standing.

But Moss has never seen anything like the drought of 2026.

“I’ve been through tons of droughts, but none like this at this time of the year,” said Moss, who graduated from NC State in 1975 with an animal science degree.

North Carolina is experiencing a historic drought, with the entire state dealing with abnormally dry conditions. Parts of Franklin County, including the area where Mosswood Farms raises a herd of 50 to 60 cows, are classified as D4 (exceptional drought) by the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The months-long lack of rain is creating significant issues for livestock producers across the state. Daily essentials like feeding and watering have become challenges. 

“A lot of creeks are drying up and ponds are way low. We are using municipal water for the first time to supplement,” Moss said. “We typically would have put up about 60% of the year's hay with the spring cutting and there hasn’t been any to cut this year. We normally rely on grazing this time of year, but we’re feeding last year’s hay. We usually sell about half our hay and then feed the other half of it. I'm thinking we may not be selling any this year.”

All 100 North Carolina counties were experiencing drought conditions as of June 30, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. More than half of the state’s counties were classified in the two most severe categories, with 52 counties in extreme or exceptional drought. Of the remaining counties, 46 were in severe drought and only two were classified as moderate drought.

“There's just no way you can survive in this business if you don't have rain,” said Matt Poore, ruminant nutrition specialist with NC State Extension. “On the pasture-based livestock farms I work with, your primary crop is the pasture, the grass, the forage. When you lose that, you can't support your animals.”

The drought has stunted the growth of pastures across the state. Extension agriculture agent Matthew Place demonstrated the problem at a farm in Franklin County.

“Ryegrass should be a nice leaf to it but this is nothing but stems,” he said. “Fescue, you can see there’s not much growth. The clover is hugging the ground. Pastures shouldn't look like this in June. I mean, this is what it should look like in August. If we don't get some rain soon, we're going to be in a real mess.”

Resources to Help Producers

NC State Extension launched a multi-pronged response to the disaster that has included training, timely updates and a drought-assistance portal with information about financial support programs to help offset feed losses for livestock producers. The new section features agricultural drought resources for growers and producers with contributions from Extension experts.

“We’re putting information out there and keeping it posted regularly,” Poore said. “Extension agents and specialists will be sharing timely updates.” 

Another resource is a web-based tool originally launched to support Hurricane Helene recovery — NC Hay Finder — which connects hay buyers and sellers across the state. The site is a free public resource managed by NC State Extension with funding support from NC Farm Bureau, the North Carolina Cattlemen's Association and NC Choices.

The tool is designed to maximize resources within North Carolina’s agricultural community by connecting hay sellers with hay buyers. Farmers with hay for sale can create a free profile to be included in the directory listing.

Extension agents across the state are providing education on best practices by talking with producers and through events such as the 5-County Beef Tour that took place in Franklin County on June 16.

“This tour started in the early to mid '70s,” said Martha Mobley, Extension agriculture agent in Franklin County. “We rotate between a few different counties. It's a chance to showcase our farms, look at test plots and what is new, and see what practices are producing results.”

A key theme of this year’s tour was regenerative agriculture, with an emphasis on soil restoration, pasture management and drought resilience.

The three cattle farms on the tour all use rotational grazing and have pastures planted with warm-season grasses, a practice highly recommended by Extension experts as a way to relieve pressure on forage during hot, dry periods.

“Our pastures tend to be cool-season grasses, tall fescue and orchardgrass,” Poore said. “Their growth comes in April and May, when we didn't get any rain this year. September is when they start to come out of dormancy and grow. If we get some rain, they'll see some September growth, but they won't produce much until then. If they have warm-season forages, as soon as it rains they will start growing.”

Mae Farm, the second stop on the beef tour, has a pasture with a test plot planted in conjunction with NC State Extension.

“There are some different forages that some folks may not normally plant, like buckwheat, sun hemp and cowpeas,” said Paul Gonzalez, Extension’s agriculture and livestock agent in Sampson County. “You can pull the cows off your cool-season grasses that are just kind of surviving at this point in the year and put them on summer annuals that are meant for this type of weather. You can graze your cattle and protect your fescue.”

It is a method April Lloyd employs at River Mountain Ranch in Franklin County, one of the stops on the beef tour. She and her family moved from Nevada to their North Carolina farm six years ago. They were interested in regenerative agriculture and had read books and watched videos on the topic. They soon realized that the local Extension office was an indispensable resource.

“Before we moved here a friend of mine told me, ‘Whatever you do, join your Extension office’s email list.’ I had never heard of Cooperative Extension, didn't know what they did,” she said. “I joined Martha’s email list. My first class was called Find the Funding, about grants. Now I go to multiple classes a month. I even go to back-to-the-basics classes on beef cattle and the industry because there's new information she adds or a new speaker. There's always something to learn from the workshops and classes.”

Within a couple of years the farm had pastures planted with warm-season grasses and was practicing rotational grazing.

“A big issue we had was compaction,” Lloyd said. “After years of overgrazing and not being managed correctly, a lot of the water just ran off. Our goal with our soil management is to capture as much water as possible. And it seems like it's working. Over the last four years of doing it this way, we're seeing real improvements to our soil. We're still grazing every day.”

Offering Solutions 

Warm-season annuals are compatible with summer conditions, but they still require moisture to grow. They help in a drought this severe, but aren’t a complete solution.

“They’ve got to have water too,” Gonzalez said. “They're susceptible to the drought as well.”

When forage and hay are in short supply, alternative feeds including wet brewers grains and cotton gin and peanut byproducts can be used as supplements.

“In years like this, you really have to get creative,” Place said.

Ray Miller at Koi Creek Farm, the first stop on the beef tour in Franklin County, is feeding peanut byproducts to supplement his forage. Mobley gathered a sample to send to the lab to test the protein content. The results will let Miller know if it is meeting his herd’s nutrition needs. 

That is one way NC State Extension experts are helping producers calculate feed needs. 

“Extension is helping people understand the fact that animals eat a lot of feed,” Poore said. “Some farmers just have them out on pasture. When they understand how much they need to eat each day they can develop a feed budget. If they've got 20 cows and their heart's set on keeping those 20 cows, they can start building a plan to buy enough feed to bring them through.”

Getting through the drought might turn a discussion about feed budgets into a conversation about reducing the herd.

“The guy with 20 cows, what he really should consider is, ‘Okay, these are my bottom five cows, I'm going to sell them,’” Poore said. “Or if they've got calves that weigh 500 pounds, wean them and sell them and get the number of mouths, the number of eating pounds, off the farm. Cattle prices are good right now. They can capture good value and use that money to buy the feed it's going to take to keep the other 15 cows. We would really recommend that people do that.”

Crops in Peril 

Livestock is just one sector of the state’s agriculture at risk. Row crop farmers are also suffering serious impacts from the drought.

“The tobacco crop is a month behind what it should be,” Place said. “A lot of corn's trying to go to tassel, and tasseling is the main time corn needs rain to pollinate. Corn got off to a decent start this year despite the dry conditions. It was looking fairly good, putting on a good root. But we’re really going to need some rain to make it work.”

If crops wither, there could be some mutual benefit for farmers and livestock producers. Row crop farmers could potentially get an insurance adjustment and gain permission to salvage the crops. 

“Somebody with corn and soybeans can cut and bale it for hay,” Poore said. “We posted something at the end of April about the potential for cutting wheat and barley as a salvage crop for hay. [Extension specialist] Angela Post got the word out that when the cattle people don’t have anything to cut for hay the grain farmers can say, ‘Hey, maybe we could get together and make a deal on this stuff.’ There were people that did it.”

Poore is in his 36th year as an Extension ruminant nutrition specialist. He was at NC State during the 2007 drought, which cost the state’s agriculture industry more than $500 million in damages. His experience tells him that the best defense against disaster is preparation, including instigating best management practices in the good times.

“We need to be preparing for the drought when it's raining,” he said. “We need to take care of our pastures, to keep our soil health up, and not waste hay because we just don't know when the rain is going to shut off. If you're doing all those things, if you're managing your land, then a short-term dry spell does not have to negatively impact you. But when you get to this, (exceptional drought), even the best managers don't have any grass. At some point it has to rain.”

When Poore gives advice to producers, whether suggesting warm-season grasses, rotational grazing, alternative feeds or herd reduction, he speaks from both experience and empathy.

“I have a cattle farm and I know exactly what they're going through,” he said. “Sometimes it's hard to really understand what they're going through until you are also waking up with a knot in your belly and thinking, ‘When is it going to rain?’”

The combination of research-based advice and understanding the plight of farmers is key to getting through the drought.

“The most important thing is just to realize that everybody is in this together,” Poore said. “Everybody needs to pull together and try to help each other. And certainly Extension has a big role in that, matching up people with resources and providing information. It'll be an ongoing process. It's going to take all of us.”