drought

 Climate change is expanding the western drought into western Minnesota.  The USDA climate hub reports for us rainfall at about 50% of average for the month of July.   This follows a moisture short period in June as well.  Additionally, our temperatures are running several degrees above average, humidity readings are on the low side and the winds are pretty constant.  These factors cause plants to use extra soil moisture to cool themselves, thus exacerbating the dry conditions, and adding to the problem.

Planning for a diversified livestock farm must take all this into account and a judgment must be made about whether this is a one or two year event, or an ongoing trend.  We are thinking this will be an ongoing reality for us.  So first, we will likely see a need for shade for the herd periodically, to which we never paid much attention.  Fortunately, we have the farmstead grove of trees which can be used and also two maturing field windbreaks which we can set up for cattle to be moved into on hot afternoons.

Additionally, we may need to work toward a different pasture sward.  Currently we have three or four cool season grasses and some clover for them to graze.  But cool season grasses do not do well in the heat, so we may need to work toward more alfalfa, chicory, plantain and so forth, all of which are tap rooted to some depth.  Intermediate wheat grass, used extensively west of here, is worth a thought too, as it develops a tremendous ball of roots, some of which extend quite a depth.

The pigs require a different approach.  Unlike cattle, pigs will cool themselves nicely if they have access to standing water or can get to a mist sprayer.  The only time this does not work as well is when the humidity is very high and even then, it helps quite a bit. They do need shade, but this is pretty available to them as the housing provides a good bit of it.

It might be helpful to change the pig feeding over to a timed event, rather than simply having feed available all the time.  An animal with a full stomach-especially a simple stomached beast like a pig suffers from a full stomach when the weather is hot.  It may be possible and certainly worth looking at, to devise ways to encourage them to do more of their eating overnight and in the early morning hours.  The technology to accomplish this is quite inexpensive and easy to adapt.

And in the future, we may need to adjust our cropping pattern.  Corn, our major hog feed, requires a great deal of precipitation to grow and may become more of a problem.

To get through the remainder of this season we must sort down the grazing herd, and sell some animals we did not want to market.  This must be done as a first move to get the cattle appetite in line with the available grass.  We hope it rains, and soon! 

We all do need to pressure those with agency to change our economy so that we stop putting so much carbon into the air.  Politicians, of course will never do anything unless their feet are held to the fire.