Despite a good runoff season in the rockies, farmers in extreme southeast Colorado are struggling through a severe drought with precipitation 5 inches below average.

Baca, Bent, Kiowa, Prowers, Phillips, and Yuma counties are expecting some relief, but not from mother nature.

Greg Emick is a rancher in Prowers County. Emick says, that for the first time in 48 years, he has been forced to buy hay during the summer. That’s because grazing lands are not getting the precipitation they need to flourish, leaving nothing for the cows to eat.

Some relief could be on the way. The Federal Farm Agency approved emergency drought assistance to 6 counties in southern Colorado, including Prowers county where Emick's farm is.

The agency has opened up unused land from the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays ranchers not to farm or graze in certain areas. Those areas would then only be used for emergencies.

But Emick tells 11 News that there's a snag in the plan.

He says The Federal Wildlife Commission just recently got a restraining order from a judge restricting all farmers from using CRP land.

Farmers like Emick have to wait for a ruling before they can use it.