Been following this story and my prayers are with those in the drought areas...

Can't imagine the heartache for farmers, watching their income and family food, dry up before them... tough!

 

As bad as it is where I live (Iowa - Corn @ 50%), I think states like Indiana have it worse. Their corn crop is rated at about 14% right now.

 

Ouch..

Seems like things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.

 

How will this crisis not be allowed to go to waste?
This is a PRIME opportunity for PBO to implement the recently issued agri-control EO, imo.
Take care out there folks.

That was the first thing I thought of when I read this. And it begins.

 

Imo, the disaster declaration is a necessary prelude to Nat'l Emerg.
I'd better make a run to Costco.

 

central ill dry as can be

my wife and i went for a ride to get out of the house last week and i decided i wanted to find a old farm my grandparents use to live on when i was a kid
what we found was a lot of corn that was way imatuer but done already
the silks had already turned brown and the leaves were dead at the bottom but when you opened a ear it looked like popcorn not just the top but the hole ear
ive seen sweetcorn in the stores that looked half the size it should have been and th e cob haddnt even matured yet and the kernals wher not even close we have fields on the edge of town that wont even be worth putting a combine in
this is central ill folk all we grow here is corn and beans and the corn aint going to make it even if we do get rain its too late
hold on cause most of you dont know all the stuff thats manufactured wcorn by products but you will soon when the prices go thru the roof
supply and demand you know the world has the demand and we dont have the supply

 

More problems.

 

..expect anything related to corn or beans to jump in price this winter (or sooner).

Corn Jul 12 774.00 2:59PM EDT Up 23.25 (3.10%) http://finance.yahoo.com/futures?t=grains

 

I understand that folks in drought-regions are having a hard time.

Is it honestly worse now than it was 1930 - 1936?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._Oklahoma2.jpg/300px-Farmer_walking_in_dust_storm_Cimarron_County_Oklahoma2.jpg

 

Can someone help me out on this, why are there droughts that threaten to crater the middle of the country when they can grow lettuce in Yuma AZ? Don't they have irrigation?

 

No.

Here in Eastern Kansas, irrigation is not usually needed. Instead crops were chosen that would grow well with our usual rainfall pattern.

Winter wheat uses the moisture the winter snows leave, and it is harvested early. Corn sends down very deep roots. Then there is soybeans but I do not understand soy beans and so I will not speak about them!

A stretch of over 100 degree weather that hit way too early dried everything up. The corn is starting to yellow. And, there is no rain in the forcast.

On the GOOD side, the winter wheat in my area was harvested before it got hot. However, the corn looks like it is just now trying to set corn kernals, and if they do not get rain in just a little bit then the corn plants will die.

Most farmers have crop insurance, by the way. That does not mean that a crop failure will not cause problems, though. As the pastures dry up, farmers must either buy feed or sell livestock, and feed will be expensive and in a drought the price gotten for livestock will be lousy.

 

Was just looking at this map depicting forest fire locations... looking pretty harsh out there! http://fires.globalincidentmap.com/

I agree with projected food cost hikes... scary realities are hitting closer to home these days.

 

Just to highlight how severe this is; normally by this time of year I would have mowed my lawn 10 to 20 times. The grass is normally lush and fast growing. I have mowed twice this year and my lawn remains short and dead. About a week ago it rained here for about 15 minutes ... the ground is so dry that the ground absorbed all of the rain to nothing in less than an hour. I have a friend who owns a lawncare business that employs 20 + and he is hurting bad. I am sure he is not the only one. If corn prices contnue up, meats will follow as livestock is mostly cornfed. As for my garden it is doing ok for the most part but some rhubarb that I never tend to has completely died. Anyone who knows rhubarb knows that it grows like a weed and doesnt require much tending to. I am sure we will all survive and things will get better but things are bad and getting worse right now.

 

I water my corn and the silks are turning brown as well, but it's all premature. Not sure what to make of it...

 

Silks turn brown when the kernel is fertilized by pollen.

That is quite natural and is expected.

 

here in the southeast we have not had the severe issues that real farmers have had to contend with our west..prayers for ya'll.

our large garden area did take some hits from pests early on that was much more severe than normal...and while we dealt with that, we then had to replant some and the heat was just too much for some replants to surive...so our garden will be more personal food supplies this year and not as much to share.
we never do corn ..takes too much space...
I'll miss having nice corn on the cobb to eat later this year I guess and we don't do cereals... I'll watch for beef sell-offs where smaller ranchers will decide to reduce head count rather than try to feed em through winter...
we do a lot of pressure canning of meats and have large freezer capacity...deer, hogs, and beef..some poultry..kinda depends on what the best deal is...guess I'm saying as a consumer, we adjust through the seasons, looking for oppty based on what the year's weather has offered up.

 

The Ogallala aquifer is already low w/ lots of dry wells (as are other fossil aquifers), I don't eeeven want to think about how bad it could/would be if millions of gallons a day usage were added for irrigation.

We've got a real serious situation on our hands, as a country, and NO good solutions, imo.

"Food is Power.
We use it to change behavior.
Some may call that bribery.
We do not apologize."

Catherine Bertini
Executive director U.N. World Food Program, Beijing, China
Source: U.N. 4th World Conference on Women, September, 1995

 

Thoughts go out to you in the affected areas. If there is one thing that Australia has experience in, it's drought.
The last one here lasted 9 years, at one time back in '03, 100% of my state of NSW was drought affected. That's over 310,000 square miles.
How bad our lack of rainfall was in 2002/03. Anything pink or red is below average, dark red is the lowest rainfall on record for those areas.

In '09 toward the end of it, we had a bit of dust blowing around. This was Midday in Sydney.

More photos here.
http://designrevolutionaustralia.com/2010/10/11/sydney-dust-storm-2009/

Hope it does not get that bad for you. You don't need another Dustbowl......

 

USDA has dropped the overall corn yield to 146 bushels per acre but also they are reporting corn usage down. Mainly due to expected crop shortages.

http://www.agriculture.com/news/crops/usda-cn-yield-146-focus-back-on-wear_2-ar25109

They're not going to be getting 50 bushel an acre here.

 

It has been raining off and on here today, I live in an area where corn is a big deal to a lot of people. Hopefully it will help.... God Bless you all and may god bless this country.

 

It has been raining off and on here today, I live in an area where corn is a big deal to a lot of people. Hopefully it will help.... God Bless you all and may god bless this country.

Cute


We are expecting rain Sunday thru to Wednesday.

 

Tart cherry crop in Midwest destroyed by weather

http://weather.yahoo.com/tart-cherry-crop-midwest-destroyed-070931700.html
Previews Of Coming Attractions (POCA)

So how are you board members in the affected areas dealing with the situation(s) from a preppers standpoint?

I heard earlier this year or late last year about an invention claimed to absorb moisture from the air and make it into potable water. I think it was one of these http://www.odditycentral.com/news/texas-inventor-makes-water-out-of-thin-air-beats-drought.html or http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcsupply/2mactur6.html . I'd "think" that if a Bill Gates or the like were to get behind an effort like that, it could have a huge impact. What say you? Would you support .gov efforts to encourage/fund something like that instead billions to say A-stan/P-stan?

 

NorIDhunter: It's a glorified dehumidifier, right? Why not buy the CHEAP dehumidifier, then run the water through a filter. Maybe not as efficient, but readily available to most of us.

 

NorIDhunter: It's a glorified dehumidifier, right? Why not buy the CHEAP dehumidifier, then run the water through a filter. Maybe not as efficient, but readily available to most of us.

Dehumidifiers tend to be wattage whores.

Fox, the key (I think) is the "glorified" part. As Forest noted, the problem is the energy consumption, and then also the output. I don't know all the details, but from the podcast I heard about this on, the inventor was claiming that one, his unit was running off grid and then, putting out somewhere in the gallons of water instead of ounces that could be used for drinking or irrigation, especially via a drip system.
One possible problem that was mentioned was that if these "dehumidifiers" were to be used on a widespread basis, sucking gallons or water out of the air, areas downwind could end up w/ an even drier climate/possibly larger rainshadow problem.

One could argue, that from a permaculture standpoint, we're living in places we shouldn't be living in in the first place, and then fighting Nature, by working in an unsustainable manner when we're there. I don't claim to have "thee answer" but there IS a problem that needs to be addressed, or it will be exploited.

 

most of the southeast is doing pretty well with rain this year
you all could move down here :thumb:

 

Dehumidifiers tend to be wattage whores.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/us-natural-disaster-area-drought-150130308.html

The United States Department of Agriculture has declared natural disaster areas in more than 1,000 counties and 26 drought-stricken states, making it the largest natural disaster in America ever.

The declaration—which covers roughly half of the country—gives farmers and ranchers devastated by drought access to federal aid, including low-interest emergency loans

How will this crisis not be allowed to go to waste?
This is a PRIME opportunity for PBO to implement the recently issued agri-control EO, imo.
Take care out there folks.

SORRY Charlie, while the USDA has said that in FACT its just another ploy from the WH/Obammy to dole out $$$$ to everyone in exchange for their VOTE>

STOP drinking the Obama-Aid...

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/drought/drght_pdsi.html

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/drought/drght_history.html

Compare this DUST BOWL map to the one they are saying is the worst...they have to say that in order to BUY the VOTES

 

Got reports of as much as 15/16 of rain here today. What we honestly need, as much as it pains me to say it (without any ill will directed towards people in the south) is the remnants of a weak tropical storm to come charging north. These little storms that spring up and blow over in an hour aren't going to cut it.

 

The California aqueduct system, was the largest in the world and was built by the WPA under FDR.

California farmers do not 'put in' anything. Irrigation gates are already on their property when they buy the land.

A couple dollars per acre per year, and during irrigation season you only need to make a phone call to the ditch-tender. And you get as many acre-feet as you need.

[I grew up farming in Central California, my siblings are still there]

 

The corn is crap here as well, central Illinois. Right across the parking lot from where I work theres a large field of extremely tall but extremely dry and sickly looking corn. It hasn't been stunted from what I can tell, but it most certainly is not at 100%. However being a city boy I sadly do not know much about crops so who knows how it really is, this is merely my visual speculation.

 

We have just over 300ft of river frontage and our yards just a few feet above the "normal" river height (there have been a few times when I've shot carp with my bow while standing in my yard). This is the first year I recall where our lawn is "crunchy", and the river is as low as I've seen it in 20 years.

Our basement floor is about level with the river bottom, and our sump pumps (we've got three) commonly run/cycle on a regular basis (and often there were times when at least one would run 24/7 for a few weeks). This summer the only time one of the pump runs is to pump out the condensate from our AC unit.

I'm preparing our spare (new in box) pump to toss in the river and water our lawn.

Please... don't ANYONE say anything about "climate change".