Cyndi's Two Cents

The phenomenon of drought

Commentary.

“Have your disk hooked up and water on wheels.”

That request was shared by a volunteer fire department in Nebraska last week. As the enormous and devastating wildfires in Texas and Oklahoma receive national attention, men and women across the Heartland are getting more than their fair share of calls to contain fires of a much lesser magnitude. Thank goodness Midwesterners do not have to deal with the heart wrenching losses associated  with the Smokehouse Creek Fire which has burned more than a million acres, is the largest wildfire on record in Texas, and has consumed homes, buildings, equipment, livestock, wildlife, and at the time of this writing, blamed for the deaths of 2 people.   

While areas of Illinois and Indiana are abnormally dry, neighboring states to the west are experiencing moderate to extreme drought conditions early in the season. The smell of smoke from grass fires lingers in the air on my farm here in mid-Missouri, as it has for a few weeks now. My smart phone buzzes every few hours with another “Red Flag Alert” warning against starting any fires outdoors.

I have heard from listeners and readers across the Midwest whose wells are low or dry. They are hauling water not only for livestock, but for their own personal use.

Drought is not a new phenomenon. I remember learning about the Dust Bowl (July of 1928 – May of 1942) when I was in school, and hearing about the 1950’s drought (July 1949 through September 1957) when I was growing up. In very recent history, drought afflicted regions of the United States between June of 1998 and December of 2014. At their peaks, these three drought periods covered two-thirds of “the lower 48”.

I remember well how that most recent drought episode came to a head in 2012, as several regional droughts combined into a national-scale event the likes of which had not been seen since the 1950’s.

Looking back, I have written quite a few lines about drought in the last twenty-plus years of penning this column. There are years that stand out, like 2012 and 2023, when the ravages of drought forced so many farmers and ranchers to make tough decisions for the present and future viability of their livestock, crops, land, and families.

Drought affects fertility in breeding livestock. Prolonged drought causes trees to die. When water levels drop in ponds, fish become crowded and aquatic vegetation increases oxygen depletion, causing fish kill. When ponds are extremely low and freeze, it can also lead to fish kill.

Despite the impressive research and development investment in seed and crop inputs, crops struggle under drought conditions. Productivity and profitability are challenged.

Call it cyclical, call it climate change, call it whatever you want to call it. Those of us on farms and ranches in this country will deal with drought – if not now, certainly in the future. Implementing soil health practices to help conserve water, planting more drought-tolerant forage species in pastures, and practicing prescribed or rotational grazing of livestock are risk management practices to be considered.