Kim's County Line

Drought isn't good for crops. It's not good for fishing holes either. Our favorite local fishing spot is at a pasture on the Ninnescah. 

2010

Back when we were actively farming, we'd load up the 4-wheelers and join our cattle who were "vacationing" for the summer at the Ninnescah pasture. Our cows and calves are still there - managed by the Millers - but drought has impacted the pasture as a fishing venue. (It also meant fewer cow-calf pairs to spend the summer in the pasture, which is a far bigger problem than missing convenient fishing.)

Our catch in 2010!

Randy had already scouted out the pasture this spring, and he knew that fishing there was not an option. Instead, our Saturday "date" was a trip to the Pratt County Lake. It's not the lake I remember as a child. Just like an HGTV show for nature, they've done a total redesign of the lake. 

OK, it's been awhile since the lake was rebuilt. If my internet sleuthing is accurate, the lake was rebuilt in 1981, the same year we got married. But, in my mind, the Pratt lake is still like it "used to be" - the version that was completed in 1936. For those keeping track: No, I wasn't around then, and I realize I sound ancient when I reminisce about the "good ol' days."

But the new set-up is nice, with shelters on individual peninsulas scattered around the lake. 

It was a beautiful morning for fishing ... or for reading.

I'm a more dedicated reader than I am fisherman. As long as I stayed in the shade of the shelter, it was a beautiful day in nature. And bonus: I got a book done.

It took awhile for Randy to catch anything at all. Then, the majority of the fish were not exactly keepers.

 But, eventually, he caught three fair-sized catfish. 

It was enough for a small fish fry that evening. And, best of all, Randy was the chef. (I should have taken a photo, but I didn't.)

***

During the first week of May, one of my Facebook friends posted that it had been 269 days since we'd received at least 1 inch of rain. His records showed that August 4, 2023, was the last day that had appreciable rainfall in our area. He also included a report from the National Weather Service-Dodge City, which said that the month of April 2024 tied with 1909 as the driest April since 1875, with only 0.02 inches of rain. The next driest was 1935 with 0.03, 1893 with 0.04, and 1963 with 0.07 inches of rain.

So, I'm thrilled to say that we finally did get more than an inch of rain. It's certainly not enough to impact the drought in our area, but we are thankful for each drop! At the end of last week, we got 1.10" at home and 1.50" on farm ground north of Stafford. Yesterday's (Monday, June 3) gentle rainfall added another inch here at home, but only 0.15" north of Stafford, so rainfall was highly variable. Still, we are thanking God for this wonderful blessing of rain!

2023 was not the year to be a wheat farmer.

The old timers always say that wheat has nine lives. However, this year, the first eight of those lives were spent like a parched and thirsty traveler looking for an oasis in Death Valley. By the time we started getting some rain in late May and June, the crop was already on life support.

I saved a Kansas drought monitor map at the end of April. It showed how much of Kansas was in exceptional or extreme drought. It wasn't the first or last time for that red to "bleed" over much of the state.

 

Usually, there is great anticipation and excitement as wheat harvest arrives. This year, there was no sense of urgency. People in our area still aren't done, but intermittent showers have made it hard to get over the ground.

Painting filter on photograph

As I mentioned before, Tye and Todd (who farm our ground) hire custom cutters rather than having their own combine. Frederick Harvesting from Alden arrived with four combines on June 28. By late the next day, they had cut the majority of our acres.

Since I began blogging in 2010, I've had a handy record of finish dates for our wheat harvest. They've been all over the board in the past 14 years:

This year, the bushels per acre on our ground ranged from 4 to 32. 

There will be a lot of insurance adjusters in our area in the coming days because the poor crop was universal. Back in June, it was predicted that Kansas farmers would reap their smallest harvest in more than 60 years. For decades, Kansas has led the nation in wheat production. For the last two years, a drought has withered a lot of the crop.

While the final numbers aren't in, this year’s wheat harvest in Kansas is shaping up to be the smallest since 1957. That year, the Eisenhower administration intentionally suppressed wheat production. Last year, Kansas produced 244 million bushels of hard red winter wheat. It remains to be seen what the tally will be this year.

But, this is wheat country. Here's hoping for a better crop next year!

 

Our yard is usually filled with bird song. Even when I'm in my basement office, I can hear the trill of birds conversing outside my tiny window. 

Not long ago, I was talking on the phone to my sister who lives in Chicago. The conversation had started in the car, but when I got home, I sat on the back steps to enjoy the pretty afternoon. (And my cell phone doesn't work well inside my house out here in Timbuktu.) It wasn't long before she commented on the background "music" of bird song.

Like so many things we experience every day, I often take it for granted. But when something is gone or different and it suddenly returns, there's a new appreciation. That was the case when I heard the frogs' chorus as the sun was setting one evening. It was an audible sign of wonderful rains we got during late May and early June. 

Last week, I went out to take photos of the sunset. I couldn't remember the last time that the sunset's colors were captured in mirror image in puddles in fields. And I was thankful.

The 3.20 inches of rain didn't take us out of the extreme drought designation on the Kansas Drought Monitor. It did take us out of the Exceptional Drought we'd been in for weeks. And it definitely perked up spirits in farm country. 

June 8 Kansas Drought Monitor

As a reference, this was the April 27 drought monitor:

Spirits weren't the only things perked up: Our neighbor's corn across the road looked like it grew overnight. It's grown more since then.

The rain was too late to help the 2023 wheat crop much. But spring-planted crops and the pastures are enjoying their Big Gulp of water. It does wonders as an attitude adjustment for people, too. 

Just like the singing frogs, we're thankful, too!

***

Taking photos of my surroundings helps me appreciate the beauty of God's world. Last Friday evening, my photography was part of Stafford's Nora Larabee Memorial Library's Nora's Gathering for June. Nora's Gatherings are a celebration of art, music and creativity, held once a month at our library.

Then, on Monday, Bike Across Kansas had an overnight stay in Stafford. 

Our little town welcomed about 500 extra people to the community. The library again opened its doors and sponsored a pie and ice cream fundraiser. Monies raised will go toward blinds at the library, another project in efforts to revitalize our unique library.

Our guests were amazed at the library's stained glass window, leaded glass, pressed tin ceiling and other unique architecture.

I called my show, Seasons, based on Ecclesiastes 3:1: To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. My show summary included:

Those who don't live in Kansas may think we live in a so-called "flyover state." Kansas is just that place to travel through to get to the mountains, right? But it's my contention that beauty is all around us  whether it's as big as a Kansas sky or as small as a butterfly sipping nectar from a flower.

While I've always been interested in photography, I've been more committed to capturing the beauty around me since beginning my blog, Kim's County Line in 2010. My tagline is Camera Clicks and Commentary from a Kansas Farm Wife. It gives me the opportunity to share some of the photos I take while living and working with my husband, Randy, on the Stafford/Reno County line.

I also displayed the books I've written - most after adventures with our granddaughters.

You know the old cliche, "Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day."?

Unless you're planning an outside wedding in Kansas, no one is buying into that sentiment. (And, if you're planning an outside wedding in Kansas in early March, what do you expect anyway?)

We got about 0.80 inches of moisture about a week ago. While we appreciate every drop, it didn't do much to alleviate the drought conditions in the Wheat State.

However, right now, Kansas' wheat farmers are wondering if there will be much of a 2023 crop this summer at all. Tye, who took over our farm ground after last year's harvest, called Randy after touring wheat ground over the weekend. So we went out for our own perusal.

It's not looking good. But Tye is not alone. The National Ag Statistics services released an update on crop conditions for the week ending February 26. The winter wheat condition is rated:

In our area, we are ranked at in the D3 or extreme drought category. My childhood farm in Pratt County is even worse - ranked in D4 or exceptional drought category, along with most of western Kansas. Only the northeast portion of the state is without drought conditions.

Graphic from Kansas Wheat

The USDA's Ag Statistics says that subsoil moisture supplies are rated 46 percent very short, 32 percent short, 22 percent adequate and 1 percent surplus. 

“You never want to count a wheat crop out; we talk about it being the crop with nine lives,” said Jeanne Falk Jones, a multi-county specialist with K-State’s Northwest Research-Extension center in Colby in a news release from K-State Research and Extension. “But some would say we ran through a few of those lives trying to get to this point in the growing season.”

Much of the Kansas wheat crop was planted last fall in extremely dry conditions, creating variability in wheat stands in the late fall and into this spring. With limited rain and snow fall this winter, those dry conditions haven't changed.

In the past year, precipitation in Kansas was about 10 inches below normal.

At this point, wheat is in a dormant period. Last week's rain did help green up some fields, but time will tell whether it can recover enough to harvest. 

Tye - like most farmers - is trying to weigh the options. Should fertilizer be applied when the outlook looks sparse? If you apply a herbicide, it reduces the options of what you could plant after a crop failure. So, what's the best management decision?

A crystal ball would be helpful in farming. So would some rain. 

Kansas is the nation’s leading wheat producer, known for hard red winter wheat that is used for whole grain white bread and other whole grain products. According to the Kansas Department of Agriculture, the state’s growers harvested 7 million acres with an average yield of 52 bushels per acre in 2021. This accounted for 10.4% of the state’s total agricultural receipts and 22.1% of the nation’s crop.

KDA estimates the direct impact of wheat production in Kansas at $1.3 billion in output and 3,231 jobs.

Weekly crop reports from USDA Ag Statistics begin this week as the countdown begins toward wheat harvest 2023. At least, we hope there's a 2023 wheat harvest.  

Harvest 2022

 

Peace Creek at the Zenith Road - August 10, 2022

It's not a good sign when you stop at a bridge and the first thing you see is a vulture perched in the creek bed. (It flew away before I got the shot - FYI.)

This summer in Kansas has not been fit for man or beast - unless you happen to be a vulture, I suppose. We've had more days than usual above the 100-degree F mark. And we are dry. When the weather forecasters were predicting 2 to 4 inches in our area a couple of weeks ago, we got 0.75". We were thankful for every drop. However, the most appreciable rain before that happened at the end of June during wheat harvest.

The Kansas Drought Monitor tells the tale, too. Half of Stafford County is in extreme drought and the other half in severe drought. (And that's better than a bunch of counties in western Kansas.)

At the bridge along the Zenith Road, Randy saw fish gasping for air in the dwindling water. I went back with him, but we couldn't see the fish at that time. However, we saw a bunch of bullfrogs who were still hunkering down in the few wet spots they could find.

 

Two years ago in August, I took this picturesque scene as I headed toward home after running an errand to the field.

Peace Creek at the Zenith Road - 2020

The U.S. Drought Monitor website also had this chart of impacts of drought. As they indicated, the consequences vary from state to state.

Several of these are evident in Kansas and other areas of the Great Plains this year.  (Click on the chart to make it easier to read.) Some field corn is getting chopped for silage, rather than harvested for grain. There are new blue-green algae alerts in the news all the time. Fires are much more likely to get out of hand. Ranchers are contemplating how to feed their cow/calf herds with dwindling pasture reserves. 

This week was again supposed to bring rain. But as this week arrived, the weather maps on the local TV stations started changing to fewer raindrops. So far, we haven't received any moisture.

However, Wednesday was a wonderful respite from the hot temperatures. So that prompted a Gator ride to the Rattlesnake Pasture.

There's still a little water in the Rattlesnake.

It's definitely better than the scene in 2012, when it was dry as a bone.

August 2012 - no water in the Rattlesnake

The cows and calves appeared to be faring well, despite the lack of rain to make the grass grow more abundantly. However, to keep it that way, Tye and Todd have decided to wean the calves from the cows next week and sell them now, rather than wait until later this fall, as is the norm. (Though we've had our farm sale, we still retain ownership in our cow/calf herd, though Tye and Todd do the day-to-day management.)

That will reduce the number of head of cattle in the pasture, with the hope that the grass will last longer for the remaining cows.

 As we left the pasture, we stopped at our customary spot for photos on the bridge.

There's still a little water flow. It's never a rushing river, but here's a comparison from March 2021.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel? The Farmers' Almanac predicts our area will have a snow-filled winter. My Grandpa Neelly may have planted potatoes by the light of the moon and the Farmers' Almanac, but I'll believe heavy snowfall when I see it. 

“Get ready to shake, shiver, and shovel!” says the website for that publication, which was founded in 1818 and is based in Lewiston, Maine. That almanac has weathered considerable distrust from meteorologists over its long-range forecasts, which it says are created using a secret formula that’s centuries old. 

Honestly, the Farmers' Almanac can't be much worse at predicting precipitation than the local TV stations.

***

As I wrote earlier this week, I'm sure I'll write about the farm sale. But it's going to take some time and some thought. More on that down the road.