The problem is that if we wait until June or July to start thinking about how to deal with a drought, we have missed out on several management tools to reduce the impact of a summer drought.
Go ahead and soil test your fields now, so that you can have results in time to fertilize.
Often we think about our grazing management during the drought, trying to not overgraze and kill the plants.
Research has shown that overgrazing has a dramatic impact on grass root development.
If you graze a plant, root growth will stop for a few days.
But during spring, a goal should be to graze a field for 4-7 days, then allow 21-28 days to recover.
Anything you can do to allow more days for rest will help root regrowth and reduce summer drought impact.
Plant warm-season species to supplement cool-season pasture.
But the point is to plant a forage species that is more adapted to summer temperatures and more efficient with its water use.
But we can say you should plan now to determine which species you want to use to provide grazing during the summer.

Recent rains provided sufficient relief from the drought in 15 South Carolina counties.
“Wildfire activity has been above average for the month of April, exceeding the 10-year average,” said S.C. Forestry Forest Protection Chief Darryl Jones.
We have also not heard of any significant issues related to drought impacts on trees that were planted over the winter.” South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Senior Hydrologist Scott Harder added that improved streamflow conditions in the Upstate supported the removal of incipient drought for the counties of York, Chester, Union, Fairfield, Laurens, Newberry and Greenwood, as well as the Pee Dee region counties.
We will continue to monitor Saluda, Lexington and Richland counties, as they currently remain in an incipient drought status.” According to Athena Strickland, Technical Services Manager for Domtar Paper and Northeast Drought Committee Member, “the Northeast region is looking good… We have received some much-needed rainfall recently and have an outlook of more to come in the near future.
“Orangeburg, Berkeley and Charleston Counties remained in normal status, due to the recent rainfall.
Bamberg, Colleton and Dorchester Counties remained in incipient status due to a lesser amount of rain being received in those areas.
All of the local municipal water suppliers continue to have an abundant supply of water.
The agriculture and silviculture communities in the southern region have adequate moisture but remain cautious as the growing season approaches.” West Drought Committee Member Pickens Williams summarized the status of his area as follows: “The West Drought Management Area along the Savannah River from Abbeville County down to Hampton County remain in incipient drought status.
The winter and early spring rainfalls were below normal for our region, and the recent one- to two-inch rains earlier this week provided only temporary relief.
Some of our soils don’t hold water well, and as the days get hotter the moisture evaporates quickly.

California and National Drought Summary for April 24, 2018 Summary April 26, 2018 – The southern High Plains’ second wildfire outbreak in less than a week preceded the arrival of storm system that provided much-needed rainfall on April 20-21.
Rainfall in the Plains’ drought-affected areas generally totaled around an inch or less.
Rain provided modest drought relief in Oklahoma and northern Texas, but did not reach most of the region’s other drought-affected areas.
Meanwhile, some expansion of dryness (D0) and moderate to extreme drought (D1 to D3) was observed across western, central, and southern Texas.
However, dry weather persisted across northern Missouri and southern Iowa, where there was some expansion of abnormal dryness (D0) and moderate drought (D1).
By April 22, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that topsoil moisture was 19% very short to short in Missouri, up from 12% a week earlier.
Following the previous week’s significant drought reductions across the northern Plains, there were no further changes during the drought-monitoring period that ended on the morning of April 24.
On April 22, topsoil moisture was rated 64% very short to short in Kansas and 53% very short to short in Colorado.
Statewide, Oregon’s topsoil moisture was rated 26% very short to short by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on April 22, up from 18% the previous week.
Arizona’s rangeland and pastures were in even worse shape-79% very poor to poor on April 22, compared to the statewide 5-year average of 34%.

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Heavy rain over the last 24 hours has blocked roads and disrupted traffic in South Africa’s drought-hit Cape Town, city officials said on Thursday.
The first winter downpour will slightly replenish dams dried by the region’s worst drought in a century, a dry spell that has scorched farms and hit the tourism sector.
South Africa has declared a national disaster over the drought affecting the southern and western regions which had two of the driest years ever recorded in 2015 and 2016.
Cape Town authorities warned that taps in the port city of 4 million could run dry this year.
“There has been a lot of flooding in urban areas across the metro and a lot of roadways have been affected,” said Charlotte Powell, spokeswoman for Cape Town’s disaster management center.
“Flooding is a known risk to the city,” Powell said.
Forecaster Thabisile Ntleko said a few showers were expected later on Thursday before clearing ahead of a weak cold front on Friday evening and more rain.
We don’t see too much rain,” she said adding that up to 5 millimeters was expected.
The city is encouraging its residents to continue saving water amid drought restrictions that limits daily consumption per person to 50 liters a day.
Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by James Macharia and Matthew Mpoke Bigg

The Mother City was lashed by heavy rains overnight, leading to widespread localised flooding in areas around the metropole.
The weather service had predicted thunderstorms and heavy rains while the City of Cape Town’s Disaster Risk Management had been placed on standby in the event of flooding and other emergencies.
And the weather did not disappoint as thunderous showers fell throughout Wednesday night.
A senior City official said on Thursday: “We have got numerous roads that are flooded there are too many to mention.
Motorists to please take caution on the roads this morning.” Cape Town – #FLOODING Edgemead Drive, near Bosmansdam Road – avoid this route pic.twitter.com/IIB4eA8TKJ — Rob Beezy (@TrafficSA) April 26, 2018 Charlotte Powell of the City’s Disaster Risk Management, said: “Flooding has been reported mostly in urban areas across the metropole, due to blocked drains and limited run-off capacity.
Informal settlements in low lying areas have been affected.” She said roadways in Somerset West and parts of the N1 and N2 highways had been flooded.
“No emergency sheltering has been activated,”she added.
“Disaster Management officers, together with other City Services are busy making assessments and stand by crews have been activated.” – African News Agency (ANA)

A stereotypical photo depicting hunger in sub-Saharan Africa might show a gaunt victim.
When photographer Chris de Bode traveled to Cameroon–in an area where conflict, drought, and a swelling population of refugees have led to ongoing food shortages–he focused on the food instead.
On one plate, with rice, mango leaves, and maize, we see the half-eaten meal of a family that fled from a village on the border with Nigeria when armed men attacked.
They now live in a makeshift refugee camp, but there isn’t enough food; after begging, they’ve managed to gather one meal for the day for seven people.
Another photo shows a bowl of “super cereal,” a milky white porridge used as an emergency supplement.
The northern part of the country, already the poorest region before the conflict began, has been especially hard hit.
Boko Haram has kidnapped hundreds of people and forced them to work as farmers for the group; in some places, militants have issued death threats to farmers who don’t want to give up part of their harvest.
The group has also stolen at least $6 million worth of livestock.
The branches of the Red Cross working in the region provide cash to support some people in the area (giving them the option to spend it on food, when food is available, or on whatever else is needed, like repairing homes damaged in fighting), and work to bring in food when it runs out at markets–though the conflict and treacherous roads make that difficult.
“I felt by doing the same, which I’ve done a lot over the years, it wouldn’t add anything.

There used to be no need for a well in his village, but a creeping drought is now threatening agriculture and livelihoods in the area.
But his family’s main supply of drinking water comes from six small reservoirs that are refilled at least once a week for around 20,000 dinars ($17 or 13.50 euros).
Abu Ali is determined to stay put, but the drought has already forced dozens of families to flee more than 20 villages in the area.
Weather patterns are largely to blame for the crisis, according to an engineer with Iraq’s ministry of water resources.
“For the second consecutive season, the rains have been poor and temperatures have risen,” Mehdi Rashid told AFP.
– Marshes under threat – But while rain accounts for 30 percent of Iraq’s water resources, the remaining 70 percent is drawn from rivers and marshes shared with Iran, Turkey and Syria, he said.
“Iran has completely re-routed the course of the Karun river,” he said, once a cross-border river and a key water source for Iraqis.
Rashid said Iran had also “built three big dams on the Karaj river”, significantly reducing water levels in cross-border wetlands shared by the two countries.
Of the 45 tributaries once shared by Iran and Iraq, only three or four remain viable, said added.
The Iraqi stretch of the Tigris is downstream from Turkey, leaving it vulnerable to reduced flows.

SANTA FE — A New Mexico mayor who campaigned on reducing water consumption appears to use significantly more water than most of his neighbors, documents show.
During certain months, Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber uses upward of eight times more water than the average single-family residential customer in the city he leads, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported .
According to documents obtained under an open records request, his water usage is only going up.
“When it comes to water, I need to do better,” Webber said in a statement to The New Mexican.
“I encouraged people to conserve water; I need to do better, too.” Webber and his wife, Frances Diemoz, live in a nearly 5,000-square-foot gated home valued at nearly $1.15 million.
Webber said he doesn’t have a swimming pool or a big lawn, and suspects an aging irrigation system is partly to blame for his high water usage.
“We bought our home 15 years ago, with an irrigation system that is over 30 years old,” wrote Webber, who declined a personal interview with the New Mexican but answered questions submitted in writing.
“The irrigation system is obsolete and while we continually did patchwork fixes, we needed to have replaced major parts of it.
The mayor said he’s taking steps to use less water.
“I’ve (also) scheduled a water conservation assessment from the city’s conservation experts to help identify ways to use less water.” Almost half of New Mexico is struggling with extreme drought conditions.

Photos of waterways in Northern California during a severe drought in the 1970s and from the peak of the most recent drought show stark similarities.
California experienced one of its most severe droughts between 1975 and 1977.
The state got a one year’s average for rain over a two-year period.
While the state’s most recent drought, from 2012 to 2016, lasted longer, the impact was similar.
Below are photos from four well-known waterways in the region that compare scenes between the two droughts: California Department of Water Resources LiveCopter 3 California Department of Water Resources u local California Department of Water Resources California Department of Water Resources California Department of Water Resources California Department of Water Resources California Department of Water Resources Florence Low/California Department of Water Resources California Department of Water Resources The drought of 1977, Lake Oroville reached its lowest daily average storage of 882,000 acre-feet on Sept. 7, 1977.
This aerial view shows Oroville Dam in Butte County in Northern California, once called the ninth wonder of the world, as the tallest dam in the U.S. with 85 million cubic yards of earth.
Paul Hames/California Department of Water Resources California Department of Water Resources Paul Hames/California Department of Water Resources

The Department of Agriculture has developed a series of new and innovative ways to communicate with the public about the drought and climate change.
The first of these is the department’s Drought Portal, a designated site where up to date information regarding the drought can be easily accessed.
Each month will be themed and the first theme is "drought and water".
While each theme will run for one month, the first theme will run until the end of May, because of the importance of water and the impact of the drought.
All videos can be uploaded online at http://www.elsenburg.com/gooiagri/ or video clips can be sent via whatsapp to 062 044 9061.
The best video clips will be featured on the website and shared via various media platforms.
In addition, the department is producing a weekly radio programme called Die Kwik Styg on RSG.
The show, launched earlier this month, is presented by seasoned broadcaster Lizma Van Zyl.
It is broadcast on Fridays at 12.45.
Previous episodes are available on the RSG website for download.