Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
For brothers Robert and Sid Prescott of Idlewood Farms in Burke County, 2026 hasn't felt like farming — it's felt like survival. Reporting from Waynesboro, John Holcomb visits the Prescott's 850-acre Bermuda grass and beef cattle operation to hear firsthand how one of the most unpredictable seasons in recent memory is testing everything they've built.
The trouble started last fall when a summer drought robbed them of their final hay cutting of 2025. Then spring arrived with almost no rain through March and April — only for the last nine days of May to bring nine inches of rainfall and standing water across their fields, making it impossible to get equipment in and hay cut at the right time.
The result? Idlewood Farms is still working through their first cutting of the year — roughly 22 days behind schedule — with hay quality suffering because older grass simply doesn't produce the same nutritional value. A season that typically yields four strong cuttings could realistically deliver only three this year, leaving them short for their own cattle herd and the customers who depend on them.
And it's not just the weather squeezing them. Fertilizer costs are up 31 percent this year, fuel costs have jumped 60 percent — yet hay prices haven't moved in seven years. As Sid puts it, they're spending three times as much to sell a product for the same price they've always charged.
But the Prescotts aren't cutting corners. Their commitment to quality over quantity remains firm, and their determination to sell only what they'd use themselves keeps them pressing forward through a year that's felt more like dodging bullets than farming.
For brothers Robert and Sid Prescott of Idlewood Farms in Burke County, 2026 hasn't felt like farming — it's felt like survival. Reporting from Waynesboro, John Holcomb visits the Prescott's 850-acre Bermuda grass and beef cattle operation to hear firsthand how one of the most unpredictable seasons in recent memory is testing everything they've built.
The trouble started last fall when a summer drought robbed them of their final hay cutting of 2025. Then spring arrived with almost no rain through March and April — only for the last nine days of May to bring nine inches of rainfall and standing water across their fields, making it impossible to get equipment in and hay cut at the right time.
The result? Idlewood Farms is still working through their first cutting of the year — roughly 22 days behind schedule — with hay quality suffering because older grass simply doesn't produce the same nutritional value. A season that typically yields four strong cuttings could realistically deliver only three this year, leaving them short for their own cattle herd and the customers who depend on them.
And it's not just the weather squeezing them. Fertilizer costs are up 31 percent this year, fuel costs have jumped 60 percent — yet hay prices haven't moved in seven years. As Sid puts it, they're spending three times as much to sell a product for the same price they've always charged.
But the Prescotts aren't cutting corners. Their commitment to quality over quantity remains firm, and their determination to sell only what they'd use themselves keeps them pressing forward through a year that's felt more like dodging bullets than farming.
