Drought and Survival

KSQ2 said:
For quite a while now we’ve been watching the rains south and east, this is the radar about an hour from now. What is the one constant?? We get none of it. My in-laws stand to lose 150 more acres of pasture in the next week. Three more ponds are about dry. If we don’t get those ponds full in Kansas before the summer drought that we all know is coming, the results will be beyond dire.
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Yes it’s a really sad state of affairs...I really feel for the folks like yourself that never even got the winter rains and early spring rains to at least get the ponds up to a certain level let alone the well aquifers. We did get that rain Earlier this year but just like a lot of folks are 1 paycheck from bankruptcy we are always only 2 weeks from a drought and it has been at least that since any rain has fallen And our next shot is maybe the 20th but lately the goal post just keep moving...very thankful for what we got earlier this spring but I wish we just got the same amount of rain but spread over time...1” a week would be great!
 
OkieKubota said:
We have chances of rain Thursday and Friday and the the next week shows several chances...I hope we all get some substantial rain from these systems...
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I hope you’re right, they have significantly reduced our chances for Thursday and Friday. At this point we’re just hoping for something to keep the pastures and the wheat going, corn now too. It’s gonna take huge rain to get the ponds in shape for summer, and that probability is looking worse by the day. We’re still awaiting our first half inch rain since the beginning of January.
 
Anything would help but we are going to need quite a bit just to make fall crops.Already some guys are baling wheat or putting cattle on it.A half mile from town the other night pea sized hail came down and covered the ground,nothing here in town
 
Last year was awful. If we hadn’t received lots of rain in May, it would have been even worse. This year is going to be worse. May-July is already looking abnormally dry according to the National Weather Service. A large part of Kansas is already in the worst drought of the 20th and 21st centuries. This is going to be catastrophic if their prediction is right.
 
KSQ2 said:
Last year was awful. If we hadn’t received lots of rain in May, it would have been even worse. This year is going to be worse. May-July is already looking abnormally dry according to the National Weather Service. A large part of Kansas is already in the worst drought of the 20th and 21st centuries. This is going to be catastrophic if their prediction is right.
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I really don’t see how the cattle farmers can keep going in these conditions. Hay was $160 a bale last winter and for me with a very small herd a Bale would feed 3 days for our mature cattle and then every week I would put one out for the weaned heifers. I think it’s gonna be a lot worse this year...we are rolling up on 1 month without any rain whatsoever and even though we have several chances in the forecast we are getting to that time of year when chances just dissipate the day before...the percentage of the upcoming chances has already dropped nearly in half...
 
We’ll Okie, looks like you’re gonna at least get something out of this “monsoon” they’ve been talking about. Our chances are going south again, and east, and west. I hope you get it, I doubt we will.
 
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KSQ2 said:
We’ll Okie, looks like you’re gonna at least get something out of this “monsoon” they’ve been talking about. Our chances are going south again, and east, and west. I hope you get it, I doubt we will.
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So far the chances are good but that could change...I am back to feeding hay again so anything would be much welcome!
 
Well, apparently my fellow locals think we’re getting rain this week. I passed 3 fertilizer carts behind trucks on the way home from the office.
 
So far we have just had a couple of very weak showers...doesn’t register in the rain gauge...i Mowed the tops off of a few dandelions in our yard over a week ago and nothing has grown since. Had to go back to hay for the cattle and if we don’t get enough rain the hay won’t grow enough to even cut. We were hoping for 2 cuttings this year when in a normal year 3 would be no problem.
 
OkieKubota said:
So far we have just had a couple of very weak showers...doesn’t register in the rain gauge...i Mowed the tops off of a few dandelions in our yard over a week ago and nothing has grown since. Had to go back to hay for the cattle and if we don’t get enough rain the hay won’t grow enough to even cut. We were hoping for 2 cuttings this year when in a normal year 3 would be no problem.
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We got a tenth last night. The 3 ponds my in-laws were concerned about dried up a couple days ago. Almost a quarter of their pasture ground is currently unusable. I read this weekend that all of southern Kansas is in the 3rd worst drought in recorded history.
 
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It’s beginning to look like the rain in central OK will be measured in inches, while ours will be measured in tenths. Good for them, they need it desperately; but I can’t help but wonder, when is it going to be good for us??? I sound like a broken record, that’s because our land is broken right now.
 
We have good chances of rain the rest of the week in S OK. I sure hope so, I had a new pond dug and have seed in the ground.
Good luck to the rest of you


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KSQ2 said:
It’s beginning to look like the rain in central OK will be measured in inches, while ours will be measured in tenths. Good for them, they need it desperately; but I can’t help but wonder, when is it going to be good for us??? I sound like a broken record, that’s because our land is broken right now.
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I think that is playing out opposite...that’s a big area of orange and Yellow up your way! We haven’t gotten a tenth of an inch yet and it has been “raining” since about 8:30 am...or so they say...
 
OkieKubota said:
I think that is playing out opposite...that’s a big area of orange and Yellow up your way! We haven’t gotten a tenth of an inch yet and it has been “raining” since about 8:30 am...or so they say...
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It stopped here, rained for over 3 hours, but totaled less than a half inch. We’ll take everything we can get, but it’s literally a drop in the bucket.
 
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