And not a drop to drink

LITTLE ROCK — Worried about your lawn this time of year? Think of the farmers.

By every account we have seen, pasture land and forage crops such as hay are under some of the greatest stress this summer in the Midland Empire.

Hayfields in Doniphan County, Kan., are producing one third to one half of the bales as is normal.

Brown County extension agent Matt Young says there are visible differences in soil dryness between land planted in row crops, which provide some protection for the soil below, and pasture lands. “A lot of the pastures are looking really sad,” he says.

Across the state line, the U.S. Drought Monitor service had this sobering assessment: 82 percent of topsoil in Missouri is either short or very short of moisture, while nearly half of the pasture and rangeland was in poor or very poor condition.

The list of possible moisture-related problems for row crops is a long one. Drought puts crops like corn andsoybeans-two big money-makers in these parts-under stress.

Which brings us back to the weather. While last week’s rains in the region were welcome, they hardly are enough to lift us out of the moderate drought the experts say we are experiencing. And few with knowledge in these matters will venture a guess for when we’ll next see sustained moisture.

University of Missouri crop specialist Bill Wiebold thinks some corn and soybean farmers may have to do without much, if any, crop this year. “Obviously that affects the farmers, but I think the people that live in those communities and the non-farm people should understand the farmers are under a lot of stress,” he says.

We commend those agriculture agents and farmers who are using their wits and every planning tool at their disposal to mitigate the impact of this unusually dry weather. At the same time, we echo the sentiment: It’s not just plants that suffer when drought takes hold.