Drought forces Alamance County cattle farmer to consider selling herd

Dry pasture at Aldridge Family Farm is forcing Mel Aldridge to weigh whether to sell part of his cattle herd before winter feed runs out. Grass is not growing fast enough to make enough hay, so every hot, dry day tightens the squeeze on the Alamance County operation. A smaller herd would ease feed costs now, but it would also cut into the farm’s future beef sales.

The farm is owned and operated by Mel Aldridge and Lindsey Chinni, and the family says its mission is to preserve a 200-year-old homestead. Aldridge said he is deciding whether to keep the cows he has or reduce the herd to a size he can actually feed through winter. On a beef farm, that choice is immediate and practical: hold on to more animals and stretch already thin feed supplies, or sell down now and shrink what the farm can produce later.

The pressure is not limited to one pasture. Drought.gov says 151,131 people in Alamance County are affected by drought, and the county had the 18th driest May on record and the second driest January-through-May period in 2026. Rainfall was 8.47 inches below normal for that stretch, a deficit that helps explain why forage has failed to rebound fast enough for hay production. The North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council tracks conditions weekly using U.S. Drought Monitor data, and the monitor is updated every Thursday.

State and federal agencies have already moved to respond. USDA announced June 11 that North Carolina agricultural operations had been significantly impacted by drought and said technical and financial assistance was available. NC State Extension says livestock producers may be eligible for help through the USDA Farm Service Agency’s Livestock Forage Disaster Program when drought conditions qualify. Extension also says the acreage-report deadline for pasture and grass intended for hay production is July 15, 2026, and late filing can trigger a $46 per-farm fee.

The broader outlook remains severe across central North Carolina. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality said June 18 that exceptional drought had expanded to 10 counties in central North Carolina. For Alamance County, where farms between Burlington and Mebane still shape the county’s rural economy and identity, the next stretch of dry weather will determine whether producers can keep enough cattle on the ground or are forced to sell down before pasture conditions improve.