NMSU receives grant to help deal with drought

New Mexico State University has received a $1.18 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund research on how farmers and ranchers can best deal with drought conditions.
The award was made by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and its Resilient Agroecosystems in a Changing Climate grant program.
The research will focus on the Southern Great Plains region, which involves Union County, New Mexico; Las Animas, Colorado; and Cimarron County, Oklahoma.
“To develop a sustainable food and agricultural system for future generations, we must learn how to manage our natural resources better, particularly our scarce water resources in the Southern Great Plains,” said NMSU President John Floros.
Part of the effort will involve scientists at the university and its associated Cooperative Extension offices working with land managers to gather information and acquire knowledge and then communicating findings back to ranchers, farmers and the public, according to Amy Ganguli, associate professor of range science at NMSU.

Local burn ban extended as drought persists across Texoma

Grayson County Commissioners extended a burn ban Tuesday that was put in place Friday through a disaster declaration because of consecutive days of triple-digit heat scorching the region and the related dry conditions that elevated the risk of fires.
Much of Texoma remains in a state of moderate drought or abnormally dry, with conditions threatening to escalate into full-scale drought, the Texas Water Development Board said Monday in its weekly water update.
For Grayson County, the eastern portions of the county have been in a state of moderate drought for three weeks, while all other portions remain abnormally dry.
The burn ban prohibits the burning of any combustible material outside an enclosure designed to contain all flames and sparks.
The new ban will remain in effect through Tuesday, when the Grayson County Commissioners Court will review conditions again and decide whether to extend or end the order.
A report issued Friday by the Texas A&M Forest Service placed Grayson County among more than 140 counties across the state that had a burn ban in place.
For the month of July, one of the driest months of the year, a co-op weather station in Sherman has received just one inch of rainfall, National Weather Service Meteorologist Bianca Villanueva said Tuesday.
With the shift, Villanueva said there is a chance for rain over the weekend — albeit a small one.
This rain will also reduce temperatures even further, with Monday’s high expected to be just 91, Villanueva said.
The update saw only minor improvement in drought conditions across the state, with 46 percent of Texas affected by some form of drought.

The plight of our drought-stricken farmers

It seems the plight of our drought-affected farmers is finally starting to resonate.
By all indications, the city consciousness is now in tune with the harrowing lack of rain in our regional and rural communities.
The outpouring of support for farmer Les Jones seemed to substantiate this, who courtesy of public donations, will no longer be forced to shoot his starving cattle.
“There is a drought on in the agricultural sense, there is a lack of water,” says Michael.
“But that is not the only drought.
There is a political drought, there is vision drought, there is leadership drought in Australia.
This country is not water poor, we are vision poor.” “And when you combine all of this, it makes the natural drought just that much more difficult to deal with.” To remedy this, Michael is calling for a Future Fund for drought to be considered.
But we don’t have a Future Fund for drought, which is just as predictable.” “Would it not be such a bad idea to put a little money aside in a pot, a Future Fund, which could be accessed by farmers and delivered by government, in the perennial circumstance of drought?” For those who have an ” ideological lump” against handouts to the farming sector, Michael is emphasising how little subsidies our farmers receive.
“Australia has one of the least subsidised agricultural communities in the world,” he says.
“A handout here or there in dire times is nothing compared to the protection given to farmers in comparable economies.” “So we’ve got to get rid of this nonsense that is perpetuated by some that don’t understand, that west of the divide, there are a whole bunch of agrarian socialists that are just sucking at the teat of the state.” Listen to Michael’s chat with Tony Mahar, CEO of the National Farmers’ Federation, HERE:

Crop Failure And Bankruptcy Threaten Farmers As Drought Grips Europe

This story was produced and originally published by The Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
States of emergency have been declared in Latvia and Lithuania, while the sun continues to bake Swedish fields that have received only 12% of their normal rainfall.
The abnormally hot temperatures – which have topped 30C in the Arctic Circle – are in line with climate change trends, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
And as about 50 wildfires rage across Sweden, no respite from the heatwave is yet in sight.
“Most of south-west Sweden hasn’t had rain since the first days of May.
A very early harvest has started but yields seem to be the lowest for 25 years – 50% lower, or more in some cases – and it is causing severe losses.” If no rain comes soon, Nilsson’s association estimates agricultural losses of up to 8bn Swedish kronor (£700m) this year and widespread bankruptcies.
The drought would personally cost him around 500,000 kronor (£43,000), Nilsson said, adding that, like most farmers, he is now operating at a loss.
The picture is little different in the Netherlands, where Iris Bouwers, a 25-year-old farmer, said the parched summer had been a “catastrophe” for her farm.
“Older families around me are comparing this to 1976,” she said.
“Bankruptcies would be hard,” he said, “but the economic loss farmers are suffering is often just as bad because they are hidden bankruptcies that have been prevented by wasting family capital on a farm.” Thomas Duffy, an Irish dairy farmer from County Cavan, said the drought “won’t break us, but our feeding costs are 50 percent higher than last year and all the money we’d normally be putting into improving conditions for the cows and infrastructure is now going to silages [winter feed] and buying forage.” The European Drought Observatory (EDO) has described the drought as “an extensive and severe anomaly” affecting Scandinavia, Scotland, Ireland, the Baltics, the Netherlands and northern Germany.

Over 10 pct of Mongolia’s territory suffer severe drought

ULAN BATOR, July 24 (Xinhua) — More than 10 percent of Mongolia’s territory is suffering from a severe drought, said the country’s weather monitoring agency on Tuesday.
"Currently, about 90 percent of the total area of the country is in good summer condition," Danzan Sumiya, meteorologist from the National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring, said at a press conference.
But over 10 percent of the territory, including large parts of Bayankhongor province in the south-west, and some soums of provinces in the east, are suffering from drought, she said.
It has been raining heavily across large parts of Mongolia since the beginning of this month, causing flooding in some areas.
Until the recent pouring rain, nearly half of the country’s territory had experienced one of the worst droughts in its history, especially the provinces covered by the gobi desert.
Mongolia has a large nomad population of which 40 percent are dependent on rain-fed agriculture and animal husbandry for their livelihoods.

Gold Logie winner shares heartbreaking photo showing dry conditions

“This is how dry it is at our place,” Denyer said in his post.
“My wife just took this photo of our backyard and paddocks.
“We’re lucky we don’t rely on the farm for income but so many in regional Australia do.
It’s so sad right now.
May was an exceptionally dry month across the country.
To help alleviate financial pressures, National Australia Bank chief executive Andrew Thorburn announced the bank will stop charging farmers penalty interest if they fall behind on their repayments due to drought, admitting it had lost touch with some of its customers.
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has urged others to follow suit, encouraging farmers to “vote with their wallets” and tell banks who refuse to “bugger off”.
I hope other Aussie banks follow NAB’s lead and get on board,” Mr Littleproud said in a statement today.
He also had a dig at foreign-owned Rabo bank for “turning up its nose” at Aussie farmers, ruling out an FMD offset product last week.
“You have to ask how serious that bank is about agriculture in Australia,” Mr Litteproud said “If you’re a farmer whose bank doesn’t offer an FMD offset, you can tell them to bugger off because there are banks now which do.” NAB removing penalty interest for farmers was an opportunity for the banking sector to reassess penalty interest as a whole, Mr Litteproud added.

Lantana enacts first stage of drought contingency plan

The Lantana community enacted Monday the first stage of its drought contingency plan, according to a news release from Lantana general manager Kevin Mercer.
The goal of Stage 1 is to reduce total water consumption within Lantana by 5 percent.
Voluntary restrictions include: Limited watering by automatic irrigation systems and hose end connected sprinklers not more than two times per week Hand watering of landscaping materials is permissible Soaker hoses and drip irrigation of foundations is also permissible Watering between the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. is prohibited Refrain from draining/filling of swimming pools and other recreational uses involving water Vehicles may be hand washed utilizing a wash bucket and /or an automatic shut off spray nozzle Last week, the Upper Trinity Regional Water District, which supplies water to Denton County residents, requested residents conserve water because of “the lack of meaningful rainfall and continued high temperatures.” “Although Upper Trinity’s local water supply reservoirs (Lewisville, Ray Roberts and Chapman lakes) are relatively full, water levels are beginning to drop,” said Larry N. Patterson, Executive Director of Upper Trinity Regional Water District.
“High water use among Customers, particularly for outdoor irrigation, is approaching levels that may affect Upper Trinity’s capacity to deliver water to all of its Customers.
By initiating Stage 1, Upper Trinity’s goal is to achieve a 5 percent reduction in water use throughout the summer, when water use is high.” For more information, contact the Fresh Water Supply District at 940-728-5050 or CS@lantanatx.com.

Drought forcing ranchers to sell off cattle early at a loss

Because of the drought, the Decatur Livestock Market has seen almost twice the number of cattle being brought in.
Conditions are forcing ranchers to sell their cattle too soon and is costing them thousands.
“A good cow was bringing $1,300 to $1,400 just a few months ago,” said cattle rancher Jody Henderson.
Water is also drying up.
Martha Shafer normally waits until October to sell her cattle at a good price.
Ranchers make allowances by leasing other land, but moving to greener pastures isn’t an option this year.
It’s been worse.
“It’s the same situation we’re fixing to get into, but we got a little time if we get rainfall.
“Guess I have to take into account I love doing cattle, love doing horses,” said rancher Jessica Bearden.
It’s all about bringing in well fed cattle to get the best price for the ranchers who need the rain.

High Plains Cotton Trials Showing Impact of Drought

Much like producers’ fields across the High Plains, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service cotton trials are seeing a significant difference in performance this year between dryland and irrigated trials.
“While cotton can tolerate hot and dry conditions better than many crops, this year’s drought is taking a toll on dryland fields,” said Dr. Jourdan Bell, AgriLife Extension agronomist in Amarillo.
Kimura said June was very dry across the Rolling Plains when most of the dryland producers planted cotton, and so she expects to see a difference in the varieties on drought tolerance.
“Region-specific variety trials are very important for producers’ on-farm variety selection,” Bell said.
“Because precipitation is extremely variable from year to year across the Texas High Plains, it is important to choose varieties with good early season vigor.” Bell said while this is important for irrigated and dryland systems, producers are “very interested in varieties that perform well on the expanding dryland cotton acres in this region.” This year’s Texas Northern High Plains and Rolling Plains RACE trials were planted with regional cooperators on dryland and irrigated farms.
Trial locations are also selected to represent the diversity of conditions across the region.
One limited irrigation trial is located in Moore County.
“The persistent drought across much of the northern Texas High Plains has significantly impacted dryland producers,” Bell said.
But tillage management is proving to be critical to dryland cotton stand establishment this year.” She said some dryland producers across the region achieved good stands under limited tillage or no-till fields in rotation with grain sorghum or wheat residue and have been able to take advantage of the little stored moisture.
“Our irrigated trials, as well as irrigated cotton across the region, are progressing very nicely.” Kimura said the Rolling Plains has received moisture in the last two weeks, and while it was “not as much as we wanted, it will still help many cotton producers, especially those growing dryland cotton.” The maturity stage of cotton in the Rolling Plains varies widely depending on the planting timing and whether the fields are irrigated or not, she said.

Farmers hope for relief as drought continues

Worries of a tough growing season ahead were already taking shape during the last harvest.
"Let’s get some precip, as in rain, we’re just depleted in the ground.
You know we come into some 80-degree weather here in a month.
We get three or four days of that and we’re gone," DeKalb farmer Eric Sampson told News-Press Now back in March.
When asked what farmers need most going into August, he replied "Rain.
It’s just depleted.” Sampson farms corn, beans and cattle, and all three have suffered from a dry winter, spring and now summer.
He said the little bit of rain the area has seen helps, but not much.
You know, it makes things smell good and it helps, but it’s gone again," Sampson said.
"That’s mainly in northern Missouri, Northwest Missouri."
“Whether it’s an agriculture impact, a water impact, a fire impact, any impacts that folks associate with drought, we would definitely encourage them to submit those.” The University of Missouri Extension has set up a web page on its site for just that purpose, requesting photos and reports from anyone to better assess drought conditions, especially farmers like Sampson, who said he has seen worst droughts in his lifetime and will continue to hope for the best.