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Navigating the challenges of continued drought

The director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources says work continues to help the state’s agriculture industry navigate the challenges from expanding drought.

Dru Buntin tells Brownfield only a few points along the Mississippi River have required dredging from the Army Corps of Engineers.

“The dredging that happened in the past year, because we haven’t seen high flows that are going to move that sediment, the previous dredging has done pretty good work.”

Buntin says in other areas of the state, the near-normal rainfall in October helped topsoil moisture, but digging deeper…

“When you go down 20 inches, there’s a mix of positive and negative changes throughout the state. Going even deeper to 40 inches, we’ve seen mostly negative change across the state due to the long-term lack of precipitation.”

Missouri Governor Mike Parson has extended the state’s drought alert through May 2024.

Buntin says that means the drought assessment committee will continue to meet, with the next meeting expected in mid-December.