WICHITA COUNTY, Tx (RNN Texoma) – February’s rain and ice played a role in getting Wichita County out of severe drought conditions but strong winds and warm weather are drying out the soil.
Graf said two inches of moisture the county got from last month’s rain may not last long because of the weather.
"Ideally if we didn’t have a lot of wind and the temperatures weren’t really high, that would last for two to three weeks."
"There would hardly be a harvest if we don’t continue to get some rain as dry as we are," Graf said.
Don Crook,87, and his son Bryan,62, are Childress farmers and ranchers.
They said because of the dry soil makes it difficult for farmers without irrigation to have a wheat harvest.
"This rain will help with the next crop growing in," Vale said.
"It’s too dry," Bryan said.
Bryan said he just wants one thing to help all farmers and ranchers.
He also said if there is no significant rain in one month than Wichita County will be back to severe drought conditions.

Cape Town will not have to turn off water supplies after all if current consumption levels are maintained, the region’s governing party has said.
Amid a drought, the city had set a 50-litre daily limit and had told citizens "Day Zero" was approaching when people would have to queue at standpipes.
Seasonal rains should mean that date is now averted, the city said.
"Thus, provided we continue our current water savings efforts, Day Zero can be avoided completely this year," the city government said in a statement.
If we keep on saving, we will not have to queue for water this year."
Everyone has played their part to keep the taps open.
Consumption now sits at between 510 and 520 million litres per day – down from almost 1.2 billion litres in February 2015!
We can #DefeatDayZero — Mmusi Maimane (@MmusiMaimane) March 7, 2018 Report The city had resorted to increasingly drastic measures to clamp down on water usage, including "naming and shaming" the 100 addresses using the most water and fining residents who failed to comply with the 50 litre (13 gallon) limit per person.
By comparison, the average UK consumer uses some 150 litres of water per day.
Although the risk that piped water supplies will be shut off this year has receded, politicians and environmentalists warn that the water crisis is there to stay in Cape Town, as year-on-year rainfall levels dwindle.

Cape Town drought: ‘Day Zero’ will be avoided in 2018, government says Despite falling reservoir levels, officials in Cape Town say the city’s water supply will not be turned off in 2018.
Previously the city council had warned that “Day Zero” could happen in the first half of the year.
Ian Neilson, the executive deputy mayor, said: “The city now projects that, if there was to be no rainfall, Day Zero would arrive on 27 August 2018.
“As this date falls deep within the normal rainfall period, it is no longer appropriate to project the date without any consideration of rainfall.
“Thus, provided we continue our current water savings efforts, Day Zero can be avoided completely this year.” Day Zero has been defined as the day when the aggregate level on reservoirs (known locally as “dams”) drops to 13.5 per cent.
Mr Neilson warned that the water supply could be switched off early in 2019, saying: “If winter rainfall this year is as low as last year, or even lower, we are still in danger of reaching Day Zero early next year.” For the time being, restrictions on consumption will remain in place.
South Africa Tourism has warned the travel industry: “As news continues to spread around the world about the water shortage, more and more tourists are about to approach our travel trade partners with questions about whether to travel or not.
“Once you have convinced them to keep their booking, you may want to share with them steps they can take as tourists to assist.” Visitors are encouraged to shower no more than 90 seconds.
Bars and restaurants have turned off the taps in their toilets, with customers asked to use hand sanitiser instead.
Some hotel swimming pools have been converted to salt water.

The drought has halted economic growth in the Western Cape‚ finance MEC Ivan Meyer said in his budget speech on Wednesday.
Agriculture and agri-processing‚ which together produce goods and services worth R54bn‚ had been hard hit‚ he said.
"A report by the Department of Agriculture in collaboration with the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy estimates that the impact of the drought equates to an average production decline of about 20%‚" Meyer told the provincial legislature in Cape Town.
"The agriculture sector in the province has, on average, had to cut its water use by 60%‚ and some areas have already drawn down their entire water allocation.
The impact of the drought is already evident in record wheat production losses.
Export volumes of agricultural products from the province are expected to decline between 13% and 20% this year."
On top of this‚ avian flu had cost poultry farmers in the province R800m‚ and thunderstorms and hail recently destroyed about 200‚000 cartons of late-season plums.
The drought had also had a major impact on jobs.
"The combined average agricultural employment for the second‚ third‚ and fourth quarters of 2017 compared to 2016 was a decline of 31‚000 jobs‚" said Meyer.
"Looking at actual employment numbers and comparing the average employment numbers per quarter of 2015 and 2016 to those of 2017 — the drop is even more severe."

Drought conditions continue to worsen across Texas as a whole, but recent rain in Johnson County has put a halt on the area’s dry conditions.
Heavy rainfall across the southern region resulted in significant improvements to drought in the mid-South.
Over 10 inches of rain fell across eastern Oklahoma, central Arkansas, eastern Texas and northern Louisiana, filling reservoirs and leading to flooding in many areas.
Cleburne resident Gayle White said she recorded 4.56 inches last week with an official weather gauge NBC DFW sent her to track measurements.
Johnson County Master Gardener Gary Wiley said naturally, all plants like water, but they don’t like to sit in it.
“Drainage is really important,” he said.
“Most of that rain from last week has gone on down into the soil deep enough and shouldn’t affect the roots of the plant.
“It’s more advantageous to plant now that we have moisture in the soil,” he said.
“On our small grain standpoint, it was essential for us to get rain,” he said.
“We had pastures change from a hazy green to beautiful green.” Hale said the county experienced only a minor setback from the rain.

Of those, 6.4 million moved after large-scale flooding, droughts and other natural disasters, while 1.2 million were forced out by large-scale construction projects like dams.
But once researchers began gathering information from local and national government, private companies, development banks, the World Bank and activist groups they soon abandon an initial estimate of 1.7 million people.
Data on people forced to migrate by disasters came from government departments.
Many more have probably been forced to move by Brazil’s soaring violent crime rates, but a “code of silence” makes compiling that data impossible, Muggah said.
The interactive FMO platform presents data, maps and video and includes emblematic cases of mega-projects and natural disasters such as the 2015 Mariana dam collapse in which 19 people died and nearly 1,400 lost their homes.
Floods in the north-east of Brazil in 2009 killed 43 people and forced 343,000 from their homes.
In 2015 alone, 64,000 people moved because of a five-year drought in the semi-arid interior regions of Brazil’s north-east.
In 2000 10,000 people were moved for the Itá dam in the south of the country, the FMO calculated.
Activist groups said numbers could be much higher and that migrants suffered from a lack of decent housing and government care.
“There is a lack of water.

As they gather together in London today, as well as in the months ahead, governments and leaders from around the world must take urgent action to avert a catastrophe in Somalia.
The future looks promising, but all of this could be derailed if we do not work together to consign hunger to Somalia’s history.
In Somalia this prompted a response, led by UK Aid, which saved millions of lives and kept famine at bay.
Despite the generosity of the UK public, timely action from donors, governments and NGOs, and the cooperation and pragmatism of the Federal Government of Somalia, more than five million people are still in need of urgent assistance.
For Suweys and millions of Somali children, humanitarian assistance is the difference between life and death.
Last year, Save the Children reached hundreds of thousands of children and their families.
Along with our partners, we need to reach at least the same number again this year.
Leadership is required to invest in these solutions in Somalia, alongside urgent humanitarian assistance.
The World Bank’s International Development Assistance (IDA) contains precisely the level of resource required to build safety nets, resilience and drought response mechanisms – and to keep famine at bay.
By building on this progress, we can save countless lives now – and deliver a safer, healthier and more prosperous Somali future.

The latest U.S. drought monitor from March 1 showed that nearly 20 percent of California remains in severe drought, with moderate drought gripping about 50 percent of the state.
Areas from central to Southern California are being gripped by the worst of the drought, including the cities of Fresno, Los Angeles and San Diego.
San Diego received only 38 percent of its normal rainfall from December through February, and only about a quarter of an inch of rain has fallen so far in March.
Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada has been running well below normal this winter.
A storm system will bring rain and mountain snow to the Northwest and into Northern California late week but will largely miss the rest of the state.
Rain should arrive late in the day on Saturday and continue into Sunday morning, with the heaviest downpours expected Saturday night.
Between one half and 1 inch of rain is possible in the San Joaquin Valley and along the Grapevine, with a quarter to a half an inch of rain likely from Los Angeles to San Diego.
“Areas from Los Angeles to San Diego could receive beneficial rain from this system, which could help to put a dent in the drought and also raise the water level of area reservoirs,” according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Eric Leister.
Six to as much as 12 inches of snow can fall in the highest elevations of the Sierra, boosting the late-season ski industry and bringing the seasonal snowfall closer to normal.
“Dry conditions should return to kick off the upcoming week, but another storm system may target the region by the middle of the week,” Leister added.

Due to a prolonged drought in Zambia, maize production could fall from the current 3.6 million tonnes to 2 million tonnes this crop season if the current dry spell continues.
Zambia’s maize production may drop around 50 per cent in the current 2017-2018 crop season if a dry spell that the nation is experiencing continues, an industry body has warned.
Drought in Zambia and dependence on rain-fed maize The crop production season runs from October-November when the land is prepared and planting is carried out, to March-April when the crops are ready to be harvested in almost all regions.
Small-scale farmers contribute more than half of the consumed calories in the country.
Two years ago, maize production rose to 3.6 million tonnes in the 2016-2017 season, from 2.9 million tonnes the previous season.
We may be lucky to hit 1.8-2 million tonnes of maize,” he continued.
How the conditions for vegetation have deteriorated Experts at the SADC secretariat have expressed fears that low rainfall in the region has led to delays in planting as well as crop moisture stress in some areas.
“The vegetation conditions have deteriorated in the southern and eastern part of the region,” experts warn in the Food Security Early Warning System Agromet Update.
Small-Scale Farmers Development Agency (SAFADA) director Boyd Moobwe said the persistence of dry weather across the country, coupled with the high prices of farming inputs, were taking a huge blow on subsistence farmers and creating some concern for the sustainability of the sector.
Read more: How agricultural chemicals are poisoning our world.

According to OCS Mesonet, the statewide average precipitation for the full month of February was 3.85 inches.
Precipitation totals for the week ending March 4 were less than an inch across the state with the exception of the east central, south central and southeast districts.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 66 percent of the state was in the moderate to exceptional drought categories, down approximately 33 points from the previous week.
The percentage of the state between moderate and extreme drought declined by 45 percent.
Topsoil moisture conditions were rated mostly adequate to very short, and subsoil moisture conditions were rated mostly very short to short.
There were 4.5 days suitable for fieldwork.
Winter wheat grazed reached 35 percent, while rye grazed reached 65 percent.
Thirty-five percent of oats were grazed.
Conditions of pasture and range were rated at 55 percent good to fair.
Livestock condition was rated at 88 percent good to fair.