USA: Drought taking serious toll on barley harvest

Drought, affecting some 60 percent of the United States, is taking its toll all over, but none so much as the area stretching from south central North Dakota to central South Dakota, one of the most drought-stricken areas in the nation, The New Salem Journal posted August 03.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, over 60 percent of the United States is experiencing drought conditions, most ranging from moderate to severe, and the drought is affecting the central part of the United States from the Canadian border to the north, to the Mexican border to the south. The monitor shows our area of North Dakota in the “Extreme” category among drought severity, but you don’t have to tell folks around here that. It’s being experienced. And from all the talk, many say the drought of 2006 comes close to rivaling that of the Dirty 30s.

After extreme record-breaking heat July 30, the area got some relief the next day when temperatures were only in the mid-80s in the afternoon. But the extended forecast calls for more temperatures in the mid 90s by August 06.

The heat and drought has left little to hay and less to harvest in many area. And while cattle are out to graze on parched pastures, farmers and ranchers are scrambling to find enough hay for their herd to take them through the winter or are being forced to sell off some head.

And the 2006 harvest, where there is a crop to harvest, is moving along, but yield and grain quality are poor at best.

Morton County Agent Jackie Buckley said the northern part of Morton County has a little better crops.

“Those areas that got snow last fall are a little better off,” Buckley told the Journal July 31. “There’s also a little pocket by Hebron that isn’t too bad.”

Buckley said that in speaking with Mark Doll, New Salem, he had some fields that averaged 15-20 bushels to the acre and weighed 60 lbs.

“Most of the crop will be in the bale,” she noted.

New Salem Farmers Union Elevator manager Steve Garrison said that new grain has been coming in, but said too that most feed grain is being hayed.

Garrison said that the quality of some early-planted barley has been “fairly decent” but he said those farmers are keeping it for malting barley.

04 August, 2006