U.S. Water News Online
WICHITA -- Each night before going to bed, cattle rancher Barrett Broadie prays for rain. More such prayers follow on Sunday mornings, when he and his neighbors meet for church services in Ashland, a town of about 1,000 in southwestern Kansas.
It's been eight years since Broadie, 36, returned to Ashland to buy the ranch his family homesteaded in 1884. In those eight years, the few showers they have gotten were too small to leave any water runoff.
The summer of 2006 was the second warmest in the continental United States since records began in 1895, according to the NOAA National Climatic Data Center. Despite some rainfall last month in parts of the country, moderate to extreme drought conditions continue to affect 40 percent of the country.
"Most of the people who live in our part of the country here are pretty resilient people -- they come from hardy stock. They have been out here since the late 1880s. ... We are used to dealing with it, but it wears on people -- you can only manage so much," says Broadie, a fifth generation farmer.
Charlie Griffin, director of the Kansas Rural Family Help Line, gets two or three calls daily from farmers struggling with bills they have no way to pay. Some are looking for emotional support or dealing with mental health issues. Others ask about available financial resources.
"Often the first thing out of someone's mouth is, 'I don't know where to turn,"' Griffin says.
Most cries for help come from the northwest and southwest quarters of the state -- which have been struggling with the harsh arid weather for several years -- but this year the drought is so widespread calls are coming in from across the state, he says.
It's difficult to quantify how deeply the drought is affecting Kansas farmers. While the number of calls to the help line is running about the same as in past years, Griffin says the drought has risen to the top of the average farmer's list of worries, if the workshops he attends statewide are any indication.
Those stresses are likely only to get worse as farmers deal with the drought's financial affects, but at least some relief may be in the offing in some areas. The National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center has forecast some improvement across the Great Plains through December. Conditions may also ease somewhat in areas ranging from northeastern Texas to into Missouri, and also across the Southeast.
Whether the areas will get enough moisture to aid crops is uncertain.
Calls to the help line typically become more numerous as winter approaches and the seasonal farm work is done. As farmers have more time on their hands, they start going over their farm's account books. This past growing year has been a particularly tough one with the hot temperatures and drought.
"That is the time when a lot of farmers go through some seasonal depression, and some of them could benefit from assistance from a mental health professional," Griffin says.
Broadie says he's fortunate enough to have an off-farm job working for a satellite cattle auction company to help pay bills and make his land payment.
Broadie keeps about 220 cows year-round and usually runs another 400 or more head on wheat pasture every winter. Last year the drought-stressed pastures were so poor he could only run 200 head on pasture, cutting his profits in half.
"It makes it hard to make payments," he says.
In north-central Kansas, grain grower Dan Engler struggles with crops decimated by drought over the past seven years.
His off-farm job as an insurance crop adjuster helps, but his pickup truck has 217,000 miles on it and much of his farm equipment is aging. He laid off his hired man, and depends more on his children and grandparents as non-paid farm labor. To cut insurance costs, he raised the deductible on their automobile, farm and health care policies.
Engler, 42, farms several thousand acres of corn, soybeans, wheat and sorghum. Higher prices for fuel and fertilizer have driven his operational costs up an additional $35,000 this year, he says.
"How can you in a drought situation -- when you don't have a crop -- produce that $35,000?" Engler asks.
At Kansas Agricultural Mediation Services, attorney Forrest Buhler helps cash-strapped farm families restructure debt and get concessions from creditors. The 155 cases his agency is handling so far this year is down by 30 cases from a year ago, but the calls for help are beginning to pick up this month as more farmers finish harvest amid worries over how they'll pay off operational loans coming due.
He expects that by the end of the year, the agency will be handling the usual 200 to 250 cases from cash-strapped farmers. Most involve farmers in northwest Kansas, which is now in its sixth year of drought.
Dusti Fritz, chief executive officer of the Kansas Wheat Commission, recently returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., where she and other farm leaders lobbied for drought disaster assistance. They told members of the Senate and House agriculture committees that farmers are facing a two-prong disaster -- the drought and high fuel and fertilizer prices.
"I think there is a good chance that Congress might pass a disaster package -- the question is when that will occur," Fritz says. "Our message to congressmen was that we need it now and we need it before the October recess. But the message we heard back was that it was unlikely to happen that quickly."
Engler took over operations on his wife's family farm in 1998, and the first two years were good. In this part of the state, the drought began in 2000. He has seen seven young farmers he knows quit farming since he came to Kansas.
"I have to look at reality. The dollars are shrinking, the popularity for farming is not there so I have to look at sources outside of farming," Engler says. "I am not looking heavily, but keeping all options open. I have to. I have a family."
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