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Steve Fields would normally get two or three cuttings off his hay crop during the year, enough to feed his herd of 300 cows and sell some.

"This year, it's looking like all we're going to get is one," said Fields, who with his wife owns the Rocking F Farm in Climax.

A spate of bad weather, from freezes early in the growing season to a dry spring and an absolutely parched summer, has stunted his hay crop.

Fields is not alone.

There are about 860,000 head of cattle in North Carolina, according to the N.C. Department of Agriculture. Fully grown, a 1,200-pound cow will chew through 25 to 30 pounds of hay in a day.

Lack of rainfall and high temperatures have led Gov. Mike Easley to ask the U.S. Department of Agriculture to declare virtually all of North Carolina a disaster area. His request includes 85 of North Carolina's 100 counties, and aid would be made available to any county that borders one of the disaster areas.

"Our farmers need our help, and this disaster assistance may make a difference whether some of them can afford to stay in business," Easley said in a prepared statement.

Guilford, Rockingham, Alamance, Davidson and Randolph are included in the request.

A disaster declaration would make farmers eligible for disaster assistance.

Corn, cotton, soybeans, tobacco, peanuts and other crops have seen their production falter as hot weather has baked fields already parched by a lack of rain.

Hay production has fallen along with other crops. Farmers who grow their own are having trouble supplying their herds. Those who typically sell excess hay report they are out until an expected fall cutting, but the prospects for that cutting are dicey without more rainfall.

"At this stage, you don't know what the weather is going to do and if you can turn any (hay) loose to others or whether you need to keep it to feed your own livestock," Fields said.

He has been trying to buy hay from other farms to supply regular customers but has had little luck finding surplus.

Drought caused a similar hay shortage in 2002 that sent farmers in the Triad and elsewhere scrambling for hay. They found some as close as eastern North Carolina.

But loading up trucks with surplus hay from eastern North Carolina and shipping it west isn't an option this year, said Agriculture Department spokesman Brian Long. The entire state has been scorched, as has much of the southeast. And what was a 10,000-bale shortage five years ago now figures to be an 800,000-bale shortage.

"Texas has hay because they've had an abundance of rain this year," Long said. But shipping from Texas is expensive and problematic.

The department, he said, is working on programs to use crops such as corn and soybeans that may be ruined by the weather for human consumption but could be used for cattle feed. However, those sorts of measures come with their own set of problems such as dealing with pesticides applied to the crops and ensuring that crop insurance payments aren't disrupted.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mbinker@news-record.com