Drought Grips the Plains While Fires Strike Out West.
This week, more than 7 inches of rain fell in parts of Kenosha County, Wisconsin.
Others received less and could classify the precipitation as a billion-dollar grain maker.
But for those a few hundred miles away, just a half-inch of moisture for their crops would make them happy.
Areas of moderate to extreme drought expanded across eastern Montana and the Dakota’s this week.
USDA chief Sonny Perdue recently authorized emergency grazing on grasslands enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program in Montana and the Dakotas.
The order also provides farmers and ranchers within 150 miles of those heat damaged counties to take advantage of the disaster directive.
Federal officials have expanded the reach of the emergency order and, starting on Saturday of this week, will allow CRP contract holders to donate their hay to livestock producers in drought stricken regions of South Dakota.
A half-dozen blazes in Northern Nevada and California have been sparked by the recent growth of Cheat Grass, brought on by plentiful winter moisture.
You see rapid fire growth in a lot of these fires, larger acreage consumption, which makes it very difficult to firefighters to fight."