Drought
As tender spring forages begin to grow, what happens when a late frost occurs? How should cattle producers manage the impacts?
Drought is not a new issue to cow-calf producers, but many factors make this year unique. Kansas State will host a webinar to help producers weigh options on May 19.
USDA says the launch of the Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP) will address increases in supplemental feed costs in 2021. Phase 1 of the payments is expected to total $577 million.
Drought covering the continental U.S. grew by 2 points this week, now covering nearly 60% of the country. As the drought grips the Wheat Belt and key areas for cattle production, it’s creating concern for 2022.
More than 70% of the country is still covered in drought. And while the latest winter storm was packed with needed moisture for some areas, it didn’t blanket every area needing moisture to restore depleted soils.
As California farmers’ try to battle back from extreme drought, hope is coming in the form of snow. The state’s average snow water equivalent percentage of snowpack jumped from 19% on December 10 to 98% today.
California could see monumental rain and snow this week. The powerful storm is expected to drench the West Coast, as forecasters say the system could bring a month’s worth of rain in a matter of days.
The U.S. is experiencing drought conditions affecting cattle, pastures, feed crops and beyond. During Farm Journal Field Days, Drovers’ Greg Henderson discussed the drought and its effect with four industry stakeholders.
Federal officials announced this week mandatory water cuts to the Colorado River, marking the first federal water cuts, and it’s the first-ever water shortage for a river that serves 40 million people in the West.
A once-a-century drought has lowered the water level of Argentina’s main grains transport river, reducing farm exports and boosting logistics costs in a trend that meteorologists said will likely continue into 2022.
Dairy families cite dramatic drop in water usage in helping state endure record water shortfall.
Join Drovers editor Greg Henderson and experts from all segments of the beef value chain to better understand the current and future dynamics of this crisis at 3 p.m. on Thursday, August 5, for this free discussion.
As farmers in the West experience record-breaking heat, the continued extreme drought conditions are also taking a toll on growers, crops and livestock, with pasture and range conditions worsening.
AgDay’s Clinton Griffiths reports that evaporation has increased the salinity in stock dams in South Dakota, some to lethal levels for livestock.
Widespread drought brings comparisons to cow inventories a decade ago.
The dire drought situation is one USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey thinks could last through at least the remainder of 2021. Forecasts also point to a drier weather pattern returning for Texas and the Plains.
As drought conditions in the West are continuing to expand, hotter temperatures aren’t helping things. Heat that started building over the weekend is not good news for areas already dealing with that drought.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows nearly 10% of the contiguous U.S. is now under an “exceptional drought,” which is the highest the rate has been since 2011.
T.J. Atkin, a cattle rancher in Arizona and Utah, says the drought is worse than he’s ever seen, as area ranchers cull or relocate cows from reservoirs running dry.
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows from North Dakota to Texas, all the way west to California, the most severe levels of drought didn’t ease across the U.S. this past week.
North Dakota just endured its driest September to March ever on record. On Thursday, Governor Doug Burgum declared a state of emergency due to drought. Farmers are now forced to make tough decisions, early.
The western half of the country continues to see little moisture, and after a year of record government payments to agriculture, farm groups fear financial assistance this year will be tough to get passed in Washington.
U.S. farmers are facing a changing scenario this year. From wet conditions impeding planting in 2020, to now drought concerns creeping in, one analyst thinks weather could be a major market mover in 2021.
Loss and risk are an assumption in farming; devastation is not. Crops in the Dakotas and Montana are baking on an anvil of severe drought and extreme heat, as growers and ranchers make difficult decisions regarding cattle, corn and wheat.
Study: Montana’s average temperature continues to increase
Minnesota company, Plains farm aid group set up hay convoy
Nine months have passed since wildfires charred parts of the central and southern Plains during a three-day span of furious fire. Now, a proposed disaster relief package may offer more help to ranchers in need. The House recently unveiled a disaster aid plan to help cover some of the cost of hurricanes and wildfires the country faced in 2017. House Republicans are releasing an $81 billion disaster aid package, funding that’s nearly twice the request the White House made. The money could be split between a host of federal agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Agriculture. AgDay national reporter Betsy Jibben looks at how producers in Kansas and Oklahoma are recovering and still rebuilding. She talks with Dr. Randall Spare, a veterinarian from the Ashland Veterinary Center, and producers Jenny Betschart in Ashland, Kansas and Bernie Smith in Beaver County, Oklahoma.
Farmers in the northern Plains are well aware of the dry conditions, and now they have to resort to drastic measures in order to deal with eroding conditions that are destroying crops and pastures.
Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R-SD) has declared a statewide emergency because of the ongoing drought conditions in his state.
Dryness is intensifying in the northern Plains, and cattlemen and grain markets are responding.