Blistering Drought Ravages Farmland on Plains

[NashVegas]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/29/us/29drought.html?ref=business

With parts of South Dakota at its epicenter, a severe drought has slowly sizzled a large swath of the Plains States, leaving farmers and ranchers with conditions that they compare to those of the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s.

The drought has led to rare and desperate measures. Shrunken sunflower plants, normally valuable for seeds and oil, are being used as a makeshift feed for livestock. Despite soaring fuel costs, some cattle owners are hauling herds hundreds of miles to healthier feedlots. And many ranchers are pouring water into “dugouts” — natural watering holes — because so many of them (up to 90 percent in South Dakota, by one reliable estimate) have gone dry.

...

Drought experts say parts of the states most severely affected — Nebraska, the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming — have been left in far worse shape because of recent history: several years of dry conditions, a winter with little snow and then, with moisture reserves in the soil long gone, a wave of record heat this summer.
...

After weeks and weeks with little rain and high temperatures, one farmer, Terry Goehring, watched the mercury spike to 118 degrees in his Mound City, S.D., field one day in July. That was it. Mr. Goehring, who has farmed since 1978, sold half his 250 head of Angus cattle.

[SpiralHawk]

1. Bush makes vow: "I will continue my vacations until the drought is over."

"I am going on a Luxury Vacation strike until my pal God brings this drought to an end. Please pass the pretzels, and do not disturb me."

- kommander George AWOL Bush

[NashVegas]

2. Pass the Pretzels? Where's the Wheat

Going to come from?

[semillama]

3. it's super bad news for migratory ducks, too

A huge number of ducks depend on the prairie pothole region for food during migration. wonder what will happen?

[hadrons]

4. but, but I thought Jeebus loves the red states more????????????????

[Ghost Dog]

5. Cattle Groups Ask For Immediate Disaster Relief

http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=62856

Saying that cattle producers are facing some of the toughest times ever, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association President C.R. Sherron and Texas Cattle Feeders Association Chairman John Gillcrist repeated earlier calls for passage of disaster assistance for livestock producers. Texas agriculture groups had already asked for federal drought assistance in January, February and March.

In a letter to the Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico congressional delegations, Sherron and Gillcrist noted that there was very little water and very little grass left in many areas. Livestock-related losses have already reached $1.6 billion in Texas alone. “A drought of historic proportions faces us, already equal to that of the 1950s,” they pointed out.

It is estimated that 77 percent of Texas’ hay production has been lost. As of August 15, Oklahoma had an 80% poor to very poor pasture and range rating—making the state tied for the worst conditions in the lower 48 states. Rising hay and supplemental feed costs are forcing many ranchers to sell brood cows that normally would not go to market. Others are liquidating their entire herds.

“This scaling back of the cowherd will have long-term impacts on ranchers, local communities, feedyards and the economy as it shrinks the cattle industries’ contribution to economic output for the foreseeable future,” the letter said.

/more...

[Ghost Dog]

6. Global warming alarmists aren't upset enough

http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/wb/xp-79644

<snip>

What we are seeing in the global warming picture is record heat and less-than-average rains, especially across North America. But, at Brabant Research Inc., we do biological and botanical research, primary research, (that means we actually do all the analytical testing as well as the field and lab research work), and we've been looking at the global warming picture since 1995 from an analytical and plant physiology viewpoint. All that experience makes us wonder, where are the real alarmists? Let me explain:

An increase of 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit doesn't just mean it's warmer. It means that plants, especially temperate climate plants (not tropical plants), have to keep cool by increasing the rate of transrespiration, moving water throughout the plant. That's how plants "keep cool."

But an increase in daytime temperatures of 10 degrees Fahrenheit equates to a 50 percent increase in transrespiration in most temperate climate plants, less in some, more in others. The water doesn't circulate in the plant, go up then down and all around, it comes out of the leaf stomas (openings) as water vapor. That's part of what humidity is, plant sweat.

Now, with 50 percent of the U.S. currently in one form or another of drought, and plants needing an increase of roughly 50 percent of water movement, doesn't this mean that the plants are using the ground water at half again the normal rate? And, we've established, the ground water (rain) replenishment rate is at drought levels, yes?

That's my point here: Most plant physiologists, most botanists, most biologists know these simple plant facts. Where are they in this "debate" about global warming?

Where are the real alarmists who should be shouting at the tops of their lungs that a major calamity is scheduled to befall the North American continent unless global warming is brought to a halt now. Not 10 years from now, not five years from now. Now!

/more...

[donsu]

7. kick NOW

nt

[wellstone dem]

8. I drove through Minnesota, SD, WY, MT, and ND over the

last two weeks and is is clearly a disaster. The fields are brown, in one place the corn had been plowed up, though the farmer had left a few rows up every 20 yards or so, to serve as a wind break. It was incredible. Brown corn, brown soy beans, everywhere. You could count on seeing antelope wherever there was some irrigation or a river.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. One word: Dustbowl. n/t

[Ian David]

10. This is a lie. Ann Coulter says there's no such thing as a drought.

"How can there be a shortage of something that literally falls from the sky?"

(Yes, I'm being sarcastic).

[ShockediSay]

12. not scientifically proven

nor, for that matter is Ann Coulter

I thought she was an embryo somebody thought they destroyed .... maybe she was

[MadHound]

11. Well, this finally makes the news!

I've been living this drought for the past couple of years here in Missouri. Picked a hell of a time to start an orchard, but oh well:shrug: I've been hauling over a thousand gallons of water a week to keep my trees thirsty, but the row crops here, corn, soybeans, wheat, etc. have all gone to hell this year and last. We've finally had some rain and cooler weather this past week, but it's too late for the farmers, most have been wiped out two years running.

I'm praying for a seriously cold, seriously snowy winter this year. Kill the bugs and rehydrate the water table.

[donkeyotay]

13. Wishing you the best

I had a bright engineer seriously explain to me how global warming wasn't a big deal for agriculture as farmers would just plant different crops to adjust to different weather. I was left uncharacteristically speechless. Must have lived his whole life in a Safeway. Has no idea. Probably thinks you should pick up your trees and move. I appreciate the people who grow our food. It IS hard work, and tends to make people pray and be thankful.

Good luck to you!
:hi:

[theophilus]

16. What part of the state are you in? Is all of Missouri dry? I have

some land in southern MO.

[MadHound]

17. I live in Mid Mo

While all of Missouri is in drought conditions this year, two areas, SW and Mid Mo are getting hit the hardest. Northern Missouri has gotten a fair amount of rain however, and they may not be officially in drought, thought their water table is probably still recovering from last years drought.

[samsingh]

14. but it's not global warming - sarcasm off

[Javaman]

15. Read my sig line...no sooner does moron* announce his

"brilliant" plan to make ethanol available, then the midwest, the breadbasket of the U.S. (as I was always told in school), the place that will fulfill morons* new society of ethanol fueled cars, a colossal drought happens.

Once again read my sig line. I mean, damn, has moron* got the stink on him or what? That fucking idiot son* couldn't count two fingers in a row if his life depended on it. If anything we need to impeach him so we can scrape off the bad luck he* has foisted upon us.

[Odin2005]

18. I grew up in rural NW Minnesota...

The fields are looking really bad.