Editorial: Drought threat looms over Nebraska.
It’s a familiar part of the climatic cycle in our part of the country.
This year, drought has returned just to our north, with severe conditions afflicting much of the Dakotas and Montana.
“Only 9 percent of South Dakota is not suffering from drought,” U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said during a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing last week.
“If they are making it, they are making it day to day right now, and they don’t know how they are going to make it to the winter.” Recent cattle sales in those drought-stricken states have skyrocketed.
In response, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has authorized emergency grazing on Conservation Reserve Program lands set aside for ecological protection.
This means hay donations are allowed from producers throughout Nebraska’s Sand Hills.
Still, a survey of nearly 5,000 wells statewide by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Conservation and Survey Division found that water stress returned in 2016 to some areas of central and western Nebraska.
Whatever lies ahead, Nebraskans can always benefit by being prepared for the return of drought, whether the dire conditions strike only part of the state or its entirety.
That proactive mindset can help a cattle or row-crop producer in managing an agricultural operation, as well as helping a business or household in handling its water use.