Stunted Winter Wheat & Lentil Crop Failure
Unfortunately it seems the 2025 Farming and Ranching sector is not enjoying the year that was anticipated. North American agriculture is plagued by drought in many areas and floods in others.
The wind blew roaring, howling, incessantly, a gale from the southeast night and day. Every day was the same winds 20-50mph with wind warning on some days as the gale reached up to 70 mph. The North forests burned in drought, cabins at lakes were consumed, and homes for residents of the North burned to ashes, emergency evacuation in hours. The south prairie suffered dry pasture grass fires, stubble fires and cracked earth in the drought. There was nothing but wind, dirt and smoke in the air. On the odd day it did not blow from the southeast it blew from the northwest and covered the prairies in thick acrid forest fire smoke and of course dust from the dried out land.
The old experienced farmers watched, shook their heads, muttered, sighed and changed their seeding plans in an attempt to balance the dry weather and closing seeding window. They also watched the native pasture grass stay gray and dirty and they calculated the amount of feed they would need for their current cattle herd size.
For some six weeks the wind raged and dirt sandblasted the land. For those brave souls who seeded on faith and little else the crop germinated and broke through the surface of the ground was shocked and stopped growing. It was too dry, and the winds and dirt drifting injured the plants. It was looking like the crop was gone to be nothing but a cover crop to control weeds and nothing more.
Then the rains came and with a vengeance, late snow in the mountains and light snow and rain from the purple bloated clouds spreading out across the prairie landscape. Thunderstorms were violent, with hail, and thick tendrils of heavy rain beating crops flat. Some farms were hailed out; others rained out by 4 to 6 inches of rain and drowned by floods. Yet a few miles away the storm may have provided a more applicable amount of rain and no hail. There was no accounting for who or where got what. Many had high wind or tornado damage to farms and buildings to add to their misery lists.
For the drought stricken areas the rain was too late, winter wheat did not fill the heads, so all you had was feed straw bales for cattle, or grazing. Other crops which were seeded early were all but dead recovered enough to make a “poor crop”. The crops seeded later got the biggest benefit as there is lots of moisture. Crops germinated and broke through the ground into plenty of moisture with heat and became strong and healthy.
There will be hay crops but nothing compared to other years as it is just too late. Pasture grazing will provide for the cattle through the summer but herd will need to be reduced in size due to the cost and availability of winter feed.
Odd storm patterns and repeatable areas continued to suffer from violent storms while not but a few miles away the land was blessed with rain and no wind, hail or flooding. For those in the drought area two additional threats manifested themselves. Gophers and grasshoppers ate whatever was left of the crops. The situation was clearly a “piling on” of crop disasters.
Seven year weather cycles they say are generally the norm. For some it has past seven years and is headed for ten. Some years a poor crop can be scratched out to sustain another year’s existence. But for others it’s a continuing slow death of the family farm, with low commodity prices and high input costs contributing to the problems.
The human toll is very high; it’s a terrible thing to be struggling with an impoverished farm while neighbors short miles away reap bountiful harvests and profits. Mental health suffers for families cursed so. Mother Nature doesn’t listen, requests fall on deaf ears.
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With regard to our farmer and rancher friends and neighbors, there are many of them who look at this year’s crop and say “well I’ve spent all I’m going to on this crop and I’m not inclined to sit and watch it burn up. Load up the camper and lets spend the rest of the summer at the lake, more time to rest and enjoy the warm weather!”
There’s tough and then there’s Agricultural tough!!
Best
Martin E. Silenus