No-till drills available for farmers to rent to renovate pastures

Twenty-five soil and water districts have drills to help farmers renovate pastures

The N.C. Foundation for Soil and Water Conservation has purchased 25 no-till grass drills for soil and water districts to rent to farmers needing to renovate pastures damaged by drought.

The Truax FlexII-88 drills began arriving in North Carolina in late May and will be delivered to districts throughout June.

The foundation selected the following soil and water districts to receive the drills based on need and pasture acreage: Alleghany, Anson, Ashe, Buncombe, Caldwell, Chatham, Davidson, Davie, Granville, Guilford, Halifax, Lincoln, Madison, Orange, Person, Rockingham, Rowan, Rutherford, Stanly, Stokes, Surry, Union, Watauga, Wilkes and Yadkin.

The 25 districts contain more than 15,600 farms and 809,000 acres of pasture land.

Farmers in these districts who want to rent a drill should contact their district office. Districts will set the rental fees, which probably will range from $8 to $10 per acre, said Cecil Settle, executive director of the foundation.

“These drills will help accelerate pasture renovation in hard-hit districts,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler.

The foundation purchased the drills using an allocation of $370,800 approved by the Council of State in May. The council is composed of Troxler, the governor and eight other elected state leaders.