More Than 60 Percent of U.S. in Drought - New York Times

[Guest guest]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Northern-Plains-Drought.html

 

 

More Than 60 Percent of U.S. in Drought

 

 

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: July 29, 2006

 

*Filed at 9:18 p.m. ET*

 

STEELE, N.D. (AP) -- More than 60 percent of the

United States now has

abnormally dry or drought conditions, stretching

from Georgia to Arizona

and across the north through the Dakotas,

Minnesota, Montana and

Wisconsin, said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist for

the National Drought

Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska

at Lincoln.

 

An area stretching from south central North

Dakota to central South

Dakota is the most drought-stricken region in the

nation, Svoboda said.

 

''It's the epicenter,'' he said. ''It's just like

a wasteland in north

central South Dakota.''

 

Conditions aren't much better a little farther

north. Paul Smokov and

his wife, Betty, raise several hundred cattle on

their 1,750-acre ranch

north of Steele, a town of about 760 people.

 

Fields of wheat, durum and barley in the Dakotas

this dry summer will

never end up as pasta, bread or beer. What is

left of the stifled crops

has been salvaged to feed livestock struggling on

pastures where hot

winds blow clouds of dirt from dried-out ponds.

 

Some ranchers have been forced to sell their

entire herds, and others

are either moving their cattle to greener

pastures or buying more

already-costly feed. Hundreds of acres of

grasslands have been blackened

by fires sparked by lightning or farm equipment.

 

''These 100-degree days for weeks steady have

been burning everything

up,'' said Steele Mayor Walter Johnson, who added

that he'd prefer 2

feet of snow over this weather.

 

Farm ponds and other small bodies of water have

dried out from the heat,

leaving the residual alkali dust to be whipped up

by the wind. The

blowing, dirt-and-salt mixture is a phenomenon

that hasn't been seen in

south central North Dakota since the Dust Bowl of

the 1930s, Johnson said.

 

North Dakota's all-time high temperature was set

here in July 1936, at

121. Smokov, now 81, remembers that time and

believes conditions this

summer probably are worse.

 

''I could see this coming in May,'' Smokov said

of the parched pastures

and wilted crops. ''That's the time the good Lord

gives us our general

rains. But we never got them this year.''

 

Brad Rippey, a federal Agriculture Department

meteorologist in

Washington, said this year's drought is

continuing one that started in

the late 1990s. ''The 1999 to 2006 drought ranks

only behind the 1930s

and the 1950s. It's the third-worst drought on

record -- period,''

Rippey said.

 

Svoboda was reluctant to say how bad the current

drought might

eventually be.

 

''We'll have to wait to see how it plays out --

but it's definitely

bad,'' he said. ''And the drought seems to not be

going anywhere soon.''

 

Herman Schumacher, who owns Herreid Livestock

Auction in north central

South Dakota, said his company is handling more

sales than ever because

of the drought.

 

In May, June and July last year, his company sold

3,800 cattle. During

the same months this year, more than 27,000

cattle have been sold, he said.

 

''I've been in the barn here for 25 years and I

can't even compare this

year to any other year,'' Schumacher said.

 

He said about 50 ranchers have run cows through

his auction this year.

 

''Some of them just trimmed off their herds, but

about a third of them

were complete dispersions -- they'll never be

back,'' he said.

 

''This county is looking rough -- these

100-degree days are just killing

us,'' said Gwen Payne, a North Dakota State

University extension agent

in Kidder County, where Steele is located.

 

The Agriculture Department says North Dakota last

year led the nation in

production of 15 different commodity classes,

including spring wheat,

durum wheat, barley, oats, canola, pinto beans,

dry edible peas,

lentils, flaxseed, sunflower and honey.

 

North Dakota State University professor and

researcher Larry Leistritz

said it's too early to tell what effect this

year's drought will have on

commodity prices. Flour prices already have gone

up and may rise more

because of the effect of drought on wheat.

 

''There will be somewhat higher grain prices, no

doubt about it,''

Leistritz said. ''With livestock, the short-term

effect may mean

depressed meat prices, with a larger number of

animals being sent to

slaughter. But in the longer run it may prolong

the period of relatively

high meat prices.''

 

Eventually, more than farmers could suffer.

 

''Agriculture is not only the biggest industry in

the state, it's just

about the only industry,'' Leistritz said.

''Communities live or die

with the fortunes of agriculture.''

 

Susie White, who runs the Lone Steer motel and

restaurant in Steele,

along Interstate 94, said even out-of-state

travelers notice the drought.

 

''Even I never paid attention to the crops around

here. But I notice

them now because they're not there,'' she said.

 

''We're all wondering how we're going to stay

alive this winter if the

farmers don't make any money this summer,'' she

said.

 

------

 

On the Net:

 

National Drought Mitigation Center:

http://drought.unl.edu/

 

 

" To be nobody-but-myself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to

make me everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being

can fight, and never stop fighting. " -e.e. cummings-