Jeff Cox

Jeff Cox, Bedford Co.Farmer - "For some people it's just the red clay that courses through your veins and it's just hard to get it out."

33-year-old Jeff Cox is determined to keep these 85 acres running.But Mother Nature doesn't seem to care.

Cox - "I don't remember when we had rain last, I really don't."It's like a wasteland.
...
Cox - "When you cut up a farm and put a house on it, that's it's.That farm has been lost.That agricultural land has been lost and you'll never get it back."

So Cox is fighting the sun, fighting the developers, and fighting the urge to give up.

Cox - "Farmers are optimistic people.They complain a lot but for the most part they're optimistic because, you know, there's always next year."

Cox works 50 hours a week at the local farm store, comes home at the end of each day and works on the farm until sunset.He's also working with the county's agricultural economic advisory board to secure a grant from the Tobacco Indemnification Fund, $75,000 to teach farming.A way to get more of his generation to stay in the fields.
...
Cox - "Agriculture is a very important part of this country.

So last year they purchased two young pigs from Jeff Cox, a member of the Bedford County Farm Bureau board and local farmer.

Cox started selling live pigs about three years ago when he realized there was unmet demand for them.About 40 people like the Wurzers buy pigs each year in the early spring and raise them until the fall or winter and have them slaughtered.They range from people with farming backgrounds to some who raise them in their back yards in 10-by-10-foot pens with a shelter, Cox said.
...
This is one of perhaps the most extreme examples of direct sales in the area, but Cox said there's a waiting list each year for his pigs, which sell for about $40 each.

"It's a growing industry.It's really taking off," Cox said of direct sales.

The news was a double-edged sword for Bedford County farmer Jeff Cox.While he welcomed the assistance, he said the last thing he needs is another loan, given depressed cattle prices.Low-interest emergency loans and one-time cash payments really don't amount to much for farmers who have taken a beating during the drought, he said, because farmers are constantly borrowing to pay for operating expenses and existing loans.

"The news is great.Every little bit helps," said Cox, a part- time cattleman and full-time farmer."But they're giving us $18 per head for beef cattle, and $18 doesn't even buy a roll of hay or a 500-pound bag of quality feed.Most of us are barely making it or not going to make it.I'm lucky I have enough hay to last throughout the winter."

Neither option is palatable for the farming community, said Jeff Cox, a cattle farmer and vice president of the Bedford County Farm Bureau.

"It's almost like starting over," Cox said.
...
Cox normally rolls about 200 bales of hay.This year, he's only managed to harvest 90.

The first hay cutting is usually done when the seed head starts to form, Cox said.
...
Cox said the rain will help the pastures grow back, but with the temperatures getting cooler and the days getting shorter, the growth will be slow.Farmers may only get an extended grazing season for the cattle.

"I got people coming in every day asking if I know where there's hay for sale," Cox said.
...
In the spring, Cox said cattle sold for $1.30 per pound.

"I use the hand signal," said Jeff Cox, a cattle farmer in Bedford County."But when I give the left or right hand signal, they think that means come around into my blind spot," he said.

The news was a double-edge sword for Bedford County farmer Jeff Cox.While he welcomed the assistance, he said the last thing he needs is another loan, given depressed cattle prices.Low-interest emergency loans and one-time cash payments really don't amount to much for farmers who have taken a beating during the drought, he said, because farmers are constantly borrowing to pay for operating expenses and existing loans.

"The news is great.Every little bit helps," said Cox, a part-time cattleman and full-time farmer."But they're giving us $18 per head for beef cattle, and $18 doesn't even buy a roll of hay or a 500-pound bag of quality feed.Most of us are barely making it or not going to make it.I'm lucky I have enough hay to last throughout the winter."

Even his two creeks went dry.

...
"I can't imagine things getting worse," Cox said.

Gov. Mark Warner lobbied last week for federal drought disaster designations and implored the U.S. Department of Agriculture to act on earlier requests covering 58 Virginia counties.