Drought and Survival

my property near branson is dry, but getting just enough rain to keep trees alive. our plots this summer did okay, the ones protected from afternoon sun did the best. We also planted heavy with pearl millet, german millet, and milo this year to keep working on our thatch layer as we started fairly clean due to clearing woods for the plots.

Our work to clear out a Dolmite Glade side slope of cedar has paid dividends though, as the native forbs that came in are growing great with the little rain we have received. almost all the different forbs show signs of being nipped by deer; to the point, my dad has started talking removing more cedars from other non-plot areas so we can see the same effects - "silver linings".

Hang in there, cooler weather has to start showing up soon and with that the fall rains.
 
We were good on rain for most of the year but now not good at all. Established plots are going to be okay (especially chicory) but doing a new planting right now looks futile. However, I already had some places sprayed, so I put seed in the ground yesterday. It does look like we have a slight chance today, but then back to nothing after that.

It's times like these that I appreciate the prairie for feeding deer. I watch deer in shooting lanes just eat and eat new growth coming back from where I mowed about 2 or 3 weeks ago. I also watched some recently devouring the tops of partridge pea plants, and it's easy to find browsing on ragweed, giant ragweed, tick trefoil and a host of other forbs that grow there.

A neighbor told me the other morning that he saw two deer feeding in his bean field while he was bowhunting. I didn't have the heart to tell him I saw 15 the same morning feeding in my shooting lanes.
 
Mennoniteman said:
I didn't know that you were dry up north as well, I thought your land is in a very wet swampy area and you would never get dry? We've had 6 weeks centered on May that didn't rain at all, then good rains during the summer, but now we're dry in late August and September. The big problem with these two dry spells is that it's exactly the times when we grow most of our deer plots for the whole year. So our plots have been depressing this last while, to the point that I've given up for this year. A lot of inputs and nothing much to show for it besides a nice corn crop.
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We’re far enough south of you to have the ideal planting time for fall plots the middle of September. They are actually saying the rain is supposed to come the end of this month and October is supposed to be relatively wet. So I still have some hope, for cereals anyway. I keep planting clover because that’s just what you do, but I haven’t seen a vibrant clover leaf since the late summer of ‘21.
 
Mennoniteman said:
I didn't know that you were dry up north as well, I thought your land is in a very wet swampy area and you would never get dry? We've had 6 weeks centered on May that didn't rain at all, then good rains during the summer, but now we're dry in late August and September. The big problem with these two dry spells is that it's exactly the times when we grow most of our deer plots for the whole year. So our plots have been depressing this last while, to the point that I've given up for this year. A lot of inputs and nothing much to show for it besides a nice corn crop.
Click to expand...

My place will hang on longer than anyone. If I start complaining about moisture, pray for my neighbors.

My perennial stuff will be fine. It’s not gonna blow the doors off on tonnage, but It’s ok. Where I excavated or sprayed this summer, it’s been terrible. I’ve still got dust where I moved dirt 6 weeks ago. The lawn is dead. There won’t be a second cutting of hay up here this year either.

I did pick up a half inch last night, but I don’t know that it will change fortunes where I have bare dirt. It may be the kick in the pants my perennials needed though. I had a massive duff crop in my new plot this year. That should have finally washed off about 600 lbs worth of triple everything.


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I’m at 4.4” rain since winter, and most of fell in quarters and halves of an inch, so it didn’t go far.


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Sometime through the night we had a thunderstorm warning, just the sound of thunder is enough to set off the alerts these days. We didn’t get a drop, meanwhile to the SE of us….
I’m really beginning to dislike the people of Arkansas. :rolleyes:
IMG_2262.jpeg
 
KSQ2 said:
Sometime through the night we had a thunderstorm warning, just the sound of thunder is enough to set off the alerts these days. We didn’t get a drop, meanwhile to the SE of us….
I’m really beginning to dislike the people of Arkansas. :rolleyes:
View attachment 26083
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That same rain completely missed us by about 4 miles and then just completely covered the state of Arkansas...I don’t dislike the folks there...until they start complaining of too much rain! I have been feeding our cattle hay for 2 weeks now...gonna be a long time before I can stop (April).
 
T-Max said:
I planted my brassicas August 12th and got .6” of rain that night. Thankfully most of it didn’t germinate since we got 7 days with ~105. Then got .25” Friday and as of today, still hadn’t germinated thankfully because it looks like 10 more 100+ coming up later this week…


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I’m surprised that 2 rains didn’t germinate brassicas? I’ve had them pop in 4-5 days when broadcasting just before rain.
 
We are still in a burn ban here, we need rain badly. We have rain chances every day for the rest of the week but not big ones. I think 50% one day is the best shot. I mowed last week on the lease and had someone standing by with a 25 gallon spray rig. Thankfully, it wasn’t needed. My a/c went out before I was through but I got it fixed today so tomorrow I’ll finish mowing. Most years I have planted by now or in the next couple weeks if army worms have been sighted. I don’t think we have to worry about them this year, the eggs are all poached from the 100+ temps we had for six weeks. 😖 I guess there’s always a bright side, but I’m struggling to see it !
 
I can’t help but notice from the above graph that we get missed again. 470 days now since a 2” rain.
 
Got off to a great start on our big week of rain today! Less than a tenth. Freaking awesome!!
 
82,48,86 — the chances of “significant” rainfall the last 3 days.

.05” — I guess the significant rainfall total they were talking about.

5.5” — the amount of rain my sister-in-law has received in Miami, OK the last 3 days.

87, 92 — the chances of significant rainfall the next 2 days, which include heavy thunderstorms with the “possibility of flooding”.

477 — the number of days since our last 2” rain.

18 — the number of lightning flashes I’ve seen from south of the Oklahoma line since I began typing this.

0 — the number of raindrops that have fallen here the last 48 hours.
 
ain't much but gotta start somewhere...it started like that at our place, then we started getting the rains again
 
I'll be watering trees again today. I'm afraid we've experienced the worst case scenario with fall plots. Just a little bit of rain with nothing in the extended forecast. I would have rather gotten no rain at all this past week. We have about 6 years until our girls will be out of the house, I told Dawna that we would be moving if our annual rainfall does not return to normal by then. I'm guessing we'll head to NE Kansas or Northwest MO. I refuse to live in a semi-arid climate. I still think the wind chargers are raising the regional temps and dropping the humidity enough to cause our long-term drought.
 
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