The drought in our area is continuing to impact those in the agriculture industry, especially cattle farmers. The lack of rain means pastures and feeding areas for the cattle aren’t growing as fast, so farmers are having to put in more hours at work and use hay they’ve had in storage. “If you’ve not got enough backup to get you through the hard times you know if you were just starting out something like this could put you out of business,” cattle farmer Dr. Don Gardner said. If you ask Dr. Gardner, the past few weeks haven’t been easy, no matter how long you’ve been in the business. “Between the forest fire in the north end of the county and the dust, between the smoke and the dust, it was pretty hard to breathe around here,” Dr. Gardner said. The Bedford County Board of Supervisors voted Monday to ask state and federal leaders to declare the county under a natural disaster for agriculture, in hopes it’s easier for farmers to get some emergency funds.