From the Pastures: Drought isn’t done

A couple of rains that equaled 3.2 inches does not end a drought! According to the local weatherman, the drought is over. I don’t think so. They reset the “year-to-date amount” of rain to zero on Jan. 1, not taking into account the previous excesses or deficits.

So, I asked a friend who has a home weather station to go back 24 months and tell me do we have a plus or minus water balance. His weather station can give him a monthly computer-generated report on how much above or below the year-to-date average rainfall is. He added up the last 24 months and came up with 18 inches short. We are in a 36-inch rainfall area, so that is half of our annual rainfall. I drilled oats and field peas into moisture at 1.5-inch depth on April 8, but we still need more rain and more consistent rain.

I preg checked the flock on March 21 and they have a 160% pregnancy rate. I think it’s lower than past years because of the weather. Look at the trees. They are not budding out a lot. Same with the flowers. You can’t fool Mother Nature.

My forages are growing now that I have gotten some rain, but the growth is way behind what it is normally and behind what I need to feed my flock. Shearing will happen in two weeks and lambing a month after that. That is why I planted an oats and pea mixture from ProHarvest Seeds into my cover crop field that I will be lambing into starting May 22. I need more feed in about one and a half months and my cover crop field from last fall didn’t regrow like it usually does this spring.

What should have been ankle to shin high was only covering the black sole on my work boot a week ago. So, I gambled and planted more seeds to thicken up the red clover, a very thin population of cereal rye and some grass I already had in that field. I was lucky enough to get the seed because they are about out of this mix of 60% forage peas and 40% Goliath oats. I had it drilled in at 50 pounds per acre three days after I’d walked my field and the drill was kicking up dust as it went through the field, but I did get it planted into moisture.

I don’t need to go to the gambling boat in Peoria — I gamble every day right here at home!