The Drought in Southeast Kansas

[Kshobbit]

Elk County Kansas has been experiencing drought and triple digit temps for two months in the summer for the last two years. Last year we were blessed with just enough rain at the right time to have a hay crop, not much wheat, no corn, milo, or soybeans. My water comes from a small river that has not been running since last spring. The city is connecting with a water source in the next county so we can have drinking water when the river runs dry. I found a source for hay for my small herd of dairy goats on Saturday. I have 3 milkers, 1 buck, 2 yearling does. A small flock of chickens, meat rabbits that are primarily used for fertilizer for my fruit trees.
I have spent years of labor, and lots of money getting my little homestead to where it is now.
I have not heard any predictions for this year but what little news says more of the same for an unknown length of time.
How long can we survive without water for the plants, trees and animals plus the extreme heat? What can I do to prolong my way of life?

[chronic66]

I read your post, which I found interesting, regarding your lack of water and severity of the drought and how it is affecting you. I have a little place in southwest kansas. I had to have a very deep well drillled about 5 years ago. This is big farm country with many, many, many ciricles of irrigated land and most of those wells are getting lower and lower, most are producing much less, many are out of water. It looks very bleak out this way. I had about a gazillion tumbleweeds blow into to my yard the other day, it is very depressing. They are stacked up against the cedar trees 10 or 12 feet deep. I don't have an answer for you, but, I do feel your pain! I was reading an article in the High Plains Journal that this drought is likely to go on for many more years. I had a bunch of goats and a few sheep and one year I just ran out of pasture for them, fed hay till I realized nothing was going to change. Sold all of them and still no moisture or pasture. It's bad. Well, another cold, windy, dry winter day.

[janetn]

Here in Michigan we are having another winter without snow. Last winter at this time we only had a little bit of snowpack on the ground the less snowpack the faster it warms up in the spring. Well Today we got a little lake effect snow which gives up a couple inches on the ground - yesterday we had green grass.Next week the forscast is for it to warm up again, Although it shows snow everyday untill then. Two winters without snow is just plain weird. Winter alway comes by the first week in January here.
Lake Michigan has hit record lows, since we dont have much of a snowpack it is going to go down further. Wells a couple counties over are tainted with salt. Shipping in some ports will become impossible. Recreational boating is already in trouble. Many marinas have docks on dry land now, and getting into Lake Michigan through the harbors is not possible in some places. Im worried about this summer. Im going to plan for another dry hot year

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by Kshobbit

Elk County Kansas has been experiencing drought and triple digit temps for two months in the summer for the last two years. Last year we were blessed with just enough rain at the right time to have a hay crop, not much wheat, no corn, milo, or soybeans. My water comes from a small river that has not been running since last spring. The city is connecting with a water source in the next county so we can have drinking water when the river runs dry. I found a source for hay for my small herd of dairy goats on Saturday. I have 3 milkers, 1 buck, 2 yearling does. A small flock of chickens, meat rabbits that are primarily used for fertilizer for my fruit trees.
I have spent years of labor, and lots of money getting my little homestead to where it is now.
I have not heard any predictions for this year but what little news says more of the same for an unknown length of time.
How long can we survive without water for the plants, trees and animals plus the extreme heat? What can I do to prolong my way of life?

You might get lucky and find you have a fairly shallow source of groundwater that you can drill to and get some for animals and irrigation: http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/PIC/pic23.html

Kind of technical, but there may be some possibility.....

Another point: I just installed a new 1.6 gpf(gallon per flush) toilet---should have done that long ago, it really works with that small amount of water....(the old one dumped about three gallons per flush...)

geo

[Tana Mc]

I live east of Kshobbit and it is pretty bleak all over. We drastically reduced our cattle numbers. My ponds are not quite dry but close enough that I have begun to fill up a stock tank at least 3-4 times a week to give my brood cows a good clean drink.
I just can't bear to hear the westher forecast and the guys chirping about how wonderfully clear the skies are........

[PrairieBelle22]

I live in east central Oklahoma and the drought persists here too. I received an e-mail the other day from the Oklahoma mesonet showing that the drought will worsen throughout most of the midwestern states. We are baling and stockpiling as much as we can.

Belle

[Oldcountryboy]

Hate to mention this, but I've heard that if this drought continues it could be twice as long as the 30's drought which last roughly 7 to 10 years. We could all be packing up and heading to California this time.

[Awnry Abe]

Same same up here in west central MO. This winter, unlike last, we at least have had some nominal moisture. Last winter, unlike the present, started with decent pond levels. At this point, it will take a major weather event to restock pasture ponds for cattle. On my 120 acre parcel, I have one large lake with remote waterers that will hold out this next summer. I also have 4 smaller ponds that I use as "backup" to the pump system. They are all flat-out bone dry. On my 97 acre parcel, I am down to a thimble full of water. My current course of action if this continues will be to take about 35 head of cattle to market that I would otherwise keep if not for the drought. I can't let them eat the grass into oblivion. I'll keep the dairy cows, all the goats, and wait for rain to start over again.

I don't listen to NPR, but last summer a friend told me I should listen to a particular interview about the drought. The NPR interviewer asked the subject matter expert for a definition of drought. The expert said their isn't one single definition. It just depends on how you are affected. Pre Hurricane Ivan, I defined drought as dead, cracked pasture. Today, I define drought as "empty ponds". All I know is drought is misery.

[poppy]

Long range weather forecasts are simply guesses and have no more than a 50-50 chance of being right. A slight change in the number and strength of weather fronts can change things dramatically. Last summer mine and several other ponds went dry and un-irrigated corn was lost. My pond had silted in a lot over 20 years, so I had it dug out and deepened while it was dry. That was in Sept. I think. The guy who dug it said with the long range drought outlook it might be a few years before it refilled. Three strong storm fronts later it is now only 4 feet from being full. Hang in there and I pray it will improve for you.

[Marshloft]

Up north in miami co. isn't any better. Friend of mine has 40 acres, him and his wife are retired school teachers but have always had some cattle.
He has/had 2 large ponds on his property, and was out to see them a few weeks back and noticed both his ponds were all but dry, one spring fed.
He told me in the over 30 years he's had the place, his ponds have never looked like this.
He sold his cattle in the fall while he still could.
He told me , we were 16 inches below normal on rainfall. Gonna be hard to recoup 16 inches of rain and refill them ponds.

[sunflower-n-ks]

East Central Ks here and most of the ponds are dry. On a trip to a nearby town the other day, I took the road that goes over Melvern Lake. What was water, is now mostly dry land. I have never seen it like that.

People talk about city people not knowing where their food comes from (just from a grocery store), I realized that some city people do not know where their WATER comes from. Last summer a local radio guy was talking about the rules the city was putting into place for water conservation and he was babbling about "cutting down shower time from an hour to 1/2 an hour". We are running out of what it takes to exist and he is willing to only stand in a shower of a half hour instead of an hour. Times the huge numbers of people in this country.......

[rambler]

Dry all the way up into Minnesota, only really rained 2 moths of the last 2 years, which is unusual here. Dried out the ditch here, Minnesota river is barely flowing, subsoil is dried out, have very little snow - more than last year, but very little.

Can easily change, as weather is finally bitter cold, usually means we get weather then, but at this point, its terrible dry.

Paul

[salmonslayer]

In SC Missouri we are about 16 inches of rainfall deficit and we have one pond completely dry and the big pond is down 4 to 5 feet. We are fortunate to have a county water hookup along with two deep wells that so far are showing no signs of drying up but the outlook for this spring starting in March and going through the summer is hot and dry.

Last year a lot of trees around here died from the drought and we didnt even bother with the last cutting of hay. We did find some opportunity though in that we were one of the few places around here that irrigated and we had a bumper crop of corn, tomatoes, and other vegetables in our truck garden and we had our best sales year yet. The drought was also responsible for the low tornado activity last year..(just trying to put a positive spin on this).

We are trying to adapt by planting more drought tolerant crops and landscaping (we sell starts and cut flowers as well) and like many we have put off expanding our cattle herd but we have two heifers pregnant right now and we will be looking to buy land just to harvest hay.

[MO_cows]

Same sad story here. It started getting dry in summer of 2011. Our grass was getting scalped so we sold off some cattle. Then we had a warm, dry winter 2011/2012. In 2012 the water tap really turned off. We had to feed hay starting in the summer. We got one real good rain, about 4 inches, from the remnants of hurricane what's-her-name from the gulf, and that grew some grass but it didn't last long. If it is as dry here in 2013 as it was in 2012, we will have to sell out the cattle.

[rambler]

We have been very lucky here to have very heavy clay soils that hold water, and got dumped upon by heavy heavy rains in June 2011, and in May 2012. In both cases we lost a lot of crop to flooding, but that is basically all the rain we got all together, so it has kept us growing the past 2 years through the rest of summer. What the corn and beans are living on by September I don't know, but we got ok crops.

See what this year brings.

In a typical year we are far too wet, and beg for a little less rain with our heavy low ground. Over my life I've lost more crops to drowning than to drought. 1988 and 2011 was the other way around, 2012 lost some crop to both drowning in May, and drought in fall. But, nothing to complain about, had good crops compared to others.

Patches of lawn were dying again this fall, as back in 1988. Takes a lot to kill lawn in this heavy soil, so it is dry when that starts happening.....

paul

[GoldenCityMuse]

If at all possible, do like Poppy, and deepen/enlarge your dried out ponds. Save the dirt to place on your garden plot, i t will be good rich soil from the dead plant & animal matter.

Dry in TX. forecast to be dry in NM as well, currently, we have snow on the ground, i tis melting nicely into the soil.

Need to get some rainwater harvesting storage up as well. That would help.

[Rainy]

I am in central Kansas and our pond's and streams are still bone dry... very scary if we get no rain or snow..

[bruce2288]

Since May 26 I have had 1.95 inches of rain and possibly an inch in snow moisture. My plan due to necessity if moisture is inadaquate, sell the 60 cows and 100 sheep and head out looking for a job. Maybe Wyoming or North Dakota.

[Tana Mc]

Oh bruce2288..... That is my worst fear!! My hubby is employed off farm but it is still in agricluture and affected by the drought.

20% chance of precipitation tomorrow but I know better than to get my hopes up.

[fordy]

................Salt Water tanker drivers make $50,000 to $80,000 down here in Tx with a Class A commercial license with a hazmat endorsement ! They're probably making more than that up in and around north dakota and down in the Midland-Odessa , tx area . , fordy