Drought Sucks

Hopefully if I write about drought it will rain, like me mowing hay, and seemingly out of nowhere there’s a pop-up shower.  I would welcome that right now! 

Even though the U.S. Drought Monitor has indicated that many parts of the Northeast are in a “Severe Drought”, it doesn’t adequately describe a farmer’s anxiety on the ground, especially grass-based dairy farms and livestock operations who rely on parched pastures and hayfields to feed animals and consumers in the region.  Most farmers in the parched areas have said the same thing—“This sucks”. 

Dr. Andrew Weaver, Extension Small Ruminant Specialist at North Carolina State University said, “We stock our farms for the 40 to 50 inches of rain.  We don’t stock them for the six inches. So, when we get the dry year, we’re not necessarily prepared for it.”                

Comedian Steven Wright reiterates the sentiment by saying, “Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it”. 

If you’ll remember, we had abundant snow followed by a rainy spring that thwarted planting and harvesting activities which prompted many to think, when will the spigot shut off.  When it did, folks were feverishly planting or replanting in combination with making hay and getting animals out to pasture.   

Then towards the end of June, the hurt was setting up, in what officials said was a “Flash drought”, characterized as a “rapidly intensifying drought, often following a wet spring, characterized by very dry and warm conditions that quickly depletes soil moisture and lead to low stream-flows and groundwater levels”. 

Call it what you will, farms were blindsided.  It’s probably a good time to ask some questions, even in hindsight: When do you notice dry weather is affecting production? How do you measure/collect data? What metrics do you use to formulate feed inventory? Are there strategies to manage differently?  Is there a decision-making process and a critical point to do something? What does this triage look like? Etc. etc.  One thing’s for sure, it’s a great time to learn about the lessons of resilience, even if it hurts a bit. 

Those experiences come from boots and eyes on the ground and some amiable farmer peers.  It’s why I appreciate my travels with NatGLC to learn how farmers are managing and sharing the nuggets of optimism. The timing of pasture walks wouldn’t be one’s first choice  during this lengthy dry spell, but farmers in the Northeast have stepped up to host some critical thinking. 

Here’s a few nuggies of resilience we’ve learned from producers in the field:   

• Have a grazing plan and an appropriate stocking rate that suggests, “What if blank happens”?   
• The sooner you measure and know the forage growth, the sooner you can make a decision to act. Determine the critical dates by which management decisions need to be made. 
• Proactive decision-making returns more profit than a reactive strategy.  Secure feed sooner than later. 
• Have a back-up plan, financial tools and a comfortable bank of feed inventory on hand.   
• Have a destocking strategy. 
• If you’ve been leaving appropriate forage residual and longer recovery periods, when the moisture returns, you’ll infiltrate more and get a quicker plant response.   
• Use the dryness to graze on wetter paddocks or feed on fields that need fertility.   
• Adjust grazing turnout times to match cooler temperatures.  
• Grazing dairy farms have a significant context difference than other operations.   
• Stay connected with mentors who have experienced these events before.  Don’t go through the stress of drought alone, talk with a trusted peer or service provider.   
• Celebrate and highlight the good work you’ve done because it shows up on the land, especially grazing and manure management along with animal impacts on improving soil organic matter.  Give yourself a break.  I’ve seen the most accredited and experienced graziers suffer from lack of moisture and take steps they didn’t want to make, but did, for the sake of the operation to continue into the future.  It’s hard to admit you didn’t achieve the goals but more importantly, it’s what you learned from this adversity that counts. Failure is not the end, but rather a stepping stone on the path to success. 

“Keep in mind that the best drought insurance for pastures is good long-term pasture management before, during and after the drought”. ~ Hugh Aljoe, Director of Ranches, Outreach & Partnerships at The Noble Research Institute.