I was going back through some letters I wrote as president of the U.S. Custom Harvesters recently and came upon one that could have been written today. It was written in the Spring of 2011. Why is this worth mentioning? It was about the impending disaster the custom harvesting industry was being faced with.  The letter  was written to the major combine and forage manufacturers asking for an extended grace period when it came time for equipment payments. I don’t remember if there was anything accomplished with that letter but it was a “heads up” to them anyway. By the time the harvest season was over, it appeared that most custom harvesters were able to hold on, sigh a heavy sigh and mutter, “there’s always next year”.

That was three summers ago.

We’ve been holding onto the “next year” thought since then and even more will be hoping for next year after this one. Personally, we thought last year was a rough start. And it was. But, by the time the combine was cleaned and placed in its winter quarters, it was ok. The fall crops helped carry us through for the year. Thank goodness!  About the first part of April of this year, we started hearing about what could be one of the worst drought situations we’ve seen in a long time. Parts of Texas are drier now than they were in 1930. They haven’t seen rain in months and are concerned about cities running out of water.

It’s bad…REALLY bad!

Dan Misener, of Misener Family Harvesters, shared a few pictures from an outing he and his family recently took. They decided to drive the local country roads to see what they could see. This is what they found:

See the pickup? That’s where the water used to be at the Elk City Lake. The last time it was full was 2009.

Dan and his family live in Elk City, OK. They have received less than five inches of measurable rain…since the beginning of 2011!!! How in the world does anything grow with such little moisture? On a side note, it started raining on Friday (May 23) and they received 7/10’s of an inch.

Last summer, we had an afternoon to kill so Taylor, Callie and I decided to go to the ‘ole stomping grounds of Deerfield Beach near Deerfield, Kansas. I was curious to see what the lake looked like. This has always been a favorite stop because of the lake and fishing opportunities. Not so much anymore:

Deerfield Beach lake 2013. How often can you walk on the bottom of a lake?

Callie put this comparison picture together of the same view – different years.

Drought affects so many more than just the farmer/rancher.  The affects trickle down the food chain. I’m going to just focus on the custom harvesting industry because that’s what I know. If there’s no crop, there’s no custom harvester. If there’s no custom harvester, there’s no two-week population growth to a community used to the influx of activity during harvest. This would affect the owner of the trailer court, the fuel distributor, the grocery store, the post office, the hardware store, the local cafe, etc. It affects everyone. The income  for each piece of the puzzle is gone. Not there. Zilch. “There’s always next year”.

Not only does drought affect the crop farmer, it affects the rancher. According to an article I just read (Joe Taschler of the Journal Sentinel), the U.S. cattle herd is the smallest since 1951.

“When a calf is born on a ranch, it is usually put out to graze on grass and pastureland. When it doesn’t rain, those pastures dry up. Without grass, the animals have to be fed something else.

As a result, cattle producers have been selling off their animals because they can’t afford to feed them. In Texas and Oklahoma alone, “There’s a million-plus head of cattle that aren’t here anymore,” Freitag said. “Some guys just decided it was easier to plant corn than it was to raise or feed cattle.”

Why should you care about this? It’s all about agriculture, right? It doesn’t affect the world I live in, right?  WRONG! In the end, it’s you, the consumer, this will affect. When you go to the grocery store and you see that your groceries are higher, you’ll have a better understanding that drought DOES affect you. What can you do? Pray. Pray for rain. Pray for God’s blessings over this land and our farmers, ranchers…and custom harvesters!