It’s springtime and I consider myself lucky. I live and farm in Northwest Oklahoma and as I look at the latest drought monitor, it pretty much confirms what I see outside…we are starting to dry out a little, but when compared to our neighbors in Texas and to the west, we are in good shape.
The latest drought monitor (you can find it here https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/) continues to show a worsening drought spreading from Central and West Texas all the way to the Pacific Ocean. In Oklahoma, dry conditions are on the rise, primarily in southern parts of the state and the tip of the Panhandle while all but the far West Kansas appears drought free.
All this can change in a hurry.
While we are moving into what is typically considered one of the wettest periods for most of the Southern Plains region, it would do well for us to consider the volatility and unpredictability of our weather patterns that we are seeing as the climate continues to change. The rain is having more of a tendency to comin large chunks and at times just a little different than in the past. This also leads to the possibility of flash drought or prolonged dry periods that are then interrupted by a heavy down poor. (if you want more info on this check out https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/documents/climate-change-ok.pdf or http://www.southernclimate.org/documents/climatechange_oklahoma.pdf)
If there is one thing we should have learned from the last 12 months, it’s that the crazy weather of the Southern Plains is getting just that much crazier. We need to be ready for whatever mother nature is going to through at us.
With that in mind, I am “recycling” a couple of videos we posted last year that talk about drought planning and what producers can do to better prepare for dry conditions in their region.
The first of these is a short interview with did with Caleb Stone, NRCS state agronomist in Oklahoma, talking about what producers can do to best prepare their crop land for drought–
and a similar presentation by Brandon Reavis, NRCS Oklahoma State Rangeland Management Specialist about what livestock producers can do to get ready for dry conditions–
For some folks, this is playing catch-up. After all, the best time to prepare for dry weather is when its wet. That said, its never to late to think about how you can harden your operation to the curve balls that Mother Nature throws our way. She is, after all, the Queen of strikeouts and sometimes it seems like she is itching to pitch a no-hitter…we need to keep our eye on the ball if we want to make it on base.
If you don’t have a plan in place for drought (or extreme weather period) the time to do it is now.
Southern Plains Perspective 