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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe unprecedented drought that's crippling Montana and North Dakota
When Rick Kirn planted his 1,000 acres of spring wheat in May, there were no signs of a weather calamity on the horizon. Three months later, when he should have been harvesting and getting ready to sell his wheat, Kirn was staring out across vast cracked, gray, empty fields dotted with weeds and little patches of stunted wheat.
Its a total loss for me, said Kirn, who operates a small family wheat farm on the Fort Peck Reservation, an area of north-eastern Montana that lies right in the heart of the extreme climactic episode. Theres nothing to harvest.
Kirns story is typical across the high plains in Montana and the Dakotas this summer, where one of the countrys most important wheat growing regions is in the grips of a crippling drought that came on with hardly any warning and, experts say, is without precedent.
While much of the countrys attention in recent weeks has been on the hurricanes striking southern Texas and the Caribbean, a so-called flash drought, an unpredictable, sudden event brought on by sustained high temperatures and little rain has seized a swathe of the country and left farmers with little remedy. Across Montanas northern border and east into North Dakota, farms are turning out less wheat than last year, much of it poorer quality than normal.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/07/flash-drought-north-dakota-montana-wildfires
Not to fear the orange hair "guy" has it covered
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10141861329
AJT
(5,240 posts)Doesn't crop insurance and crop subsidies take a lot of risk out of farming?
exboyfil
(17,863 posts)He was planting soybeans, and it was very wet at the time (standing water preventing planting portions of his field).
I wonder how he is doing.
Wounded Bear
(58,654 posts)Have had about 1 day of rain since the end of June, and that was barely measurable.
So, wildfires in OR and WA.
Qanisqineq
(4,826 posts)(Not all are repubs either, including my dad)
Many crops suffered in the drought early in the summer, then when they were getting ready to harvest what little there was, we were hit by rain for a couple weeks. Now dry again and the air smells of the fires from Montana.
BTW, my husband works for the USDA in ND and many farmers are suffering. Getting subsidies doesn't mean the average small farmer is rich.