Irrigation equipment sprays down a field along Stanfield Meadows Road west of Stanfield on Wednesday, April 21, 2021.

PENDLETON — The Umatilla County Commission unanimously voted Tuesday to declare a drought in the county and are asking Gov. Kate Brown and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to follow suit.

If the state declares a drought, local farmers could receive relief in the form of state or federal grants, officials say.

“We have a very large area in Umatilla County that is in the severe drought stage right now, with another equally large area in extreme drought,” Commissioner Dan Dorran said in a meeting, adding that “the rest of the county is either in abnormally dry or moderate drought.”

Dorran said people in the agriculture industry have been reaching out to him and voicing concerns over the current conditions.

“Right now, there’s cattle farmers that are beginning to have to buy hay because of no early grass, and that’s a big worry,” Dorran said. “Dryland wheat farmers, where are they going to be and what kind of moisture are they looking at? Are they going to be able to sustain the crops they have until the next rain they get?”

Don Wysocki, a soil scientist for Oregon State University based in Umatilla County, said this year’s wheat crop is in dire need of rain.

“If we get rain too late, we can’t really recover,” he said. “I think it’s still at a stage where if we get rain, we’d have pretty good recovery. But another week or two and we’re going to be beyond good recovery.”

Counties like Baker and Union have already declared a drought as much of Central and Eastern Oregon is experiencing either extreme or severe drought conditions, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Commissioner John Shafer said he expects even more counties to join Umatilla and declare droughts in the coming weeks.

“As the summer months are coming closer and closer, I think we’re going to see some serious problems for our farmers and I want to do everything we can to protect them,” he said.