Montana/Dakotas Drought: "The Crops Are Terrible, Just Hard To Describe"; Irrigated Yields At Risk
Crops in the Dakotas and Montana are baking on an anvil of severe drought and extreme heat, as bone-dry conditions force growers and ranchers to make difficult decisions regarding cattle, corn and wheat. Loss and risk are an assumption in farming; devastation is not. Abandoned acres, fields with zero emergence, stunted crops, anemic yields, wheat rolled into hay, and early herd culls comprise a tapestry of disaster for many producers. When agriculture damage is tallied after a withered spring and summer, crop insurance questions will be of heavy concern for many producers, particularly with a new farm bill on the horizon.
Clark Price grows corn, soybeans and wheat, and raises cattle in Oliver County. His operation in the southwest quadrant of North Dakota is arguably located in the epicenter of affected ground: “Go to South Dakota or Montana and they’re in the same ballpark, if not worse. The grass is gone and people are hurting.” Stick a shovel in Price’s ground and turn over 8” of parched soil. Since April 1, Price has recorded just 2” of rainfall – well short of the 8” to 10” of precipitation he typically receives.
Price’s scorched wheat fields could yield a feeble 10 bu. per acre. His corn is staggered from 2’ to 5’ tall and likely will yield from rock bottom to 45 bu. per acre. “A lot of us will have to bale wheat and corn. There’s just no way around it with all the hay that simply didn’t get cut,” he says. And soybeans? Price’s soybeans are flowering at a frail 10” tall, and he doesn’t expect them to make anything. Zero.
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The vast majority of corn (3.7 million acres) is planted in the southeast quarter of North Dakota, but Dale Ihry, executive director of the North Dakota Corn Growers Association (NDCGA), warns that drought is on the doorstep, and without rain, even a potential trend line yield will decrease rapidly: “Potential yields are totally up in the air, but we could get a trend line yield of 130 bu. per acre if we’re lucky. Some people think because of silage acres or affected acres in the west and central parts of the state, we’ll go below trend line yield in 2017.”
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https://www.agweb.com/article/historic-drought-hammers-dakotas-montana-naa-chris-bennett/
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