new drought effect

[txm]

We have a new development in the effects of the drought.
Bee Keepers now have to feed the bee’s sugar water to keep them alive.
They hope that rain comes soon so we can have some fall blooms for nectar.
They don’t think that many bees can live through the winter on just sugar water

[freedomrules3]

I know that Bees as well as songbirds have been on the decline for a while around here. most of the fruit farmers and vegetable farmers rent bees to pollenate their crops. hopefully things will break down that way and you'll get some rain.

[ncboman]

Have you done any research into the beginnings of the dust bowl days? I've seen stories placing a lot of blame on the farmers and ranchers for unknowingly exasperating the dust bowl days by cultivating the land during a drought.

Seems to me droughts are a cyclic occurance in the midwest and this may just be the beginning of a new one. Unless I'm mistaken there was a drought that lasted several thousand years before the bison days.

Kinda makes me shudder to think of all the corruption, fraud, and chaos that will occur if in fact a long drought in in the works. Many cities simply cannot survive such an ordeal.

[Rock Chuck]

The dust bowl was a natural drought, but farming methods exagerated the effects. It was a mark of pride for a farmer to plow a straight line. Neighboring farmers lined up their fields so they had continual furrows for miles. When it got dry and the winds came up, there was nothing but straight lines of furrows to slow it down. As a result, the winds picked up huge amounts of dust. After it was finally over, the UDSA instigated the windbreak tree program. Many of those trees have now died (they used some very short lived types of trees) and haven't been replaced. When another extended drought hits, that could be disasterous.

Dick

[txm]

RockChuck
You have it pegged exactly right.
In addition the farming at that time left barren ground from spring harvest until fall planting and the same crops were planted over the entire area.
Now we rotate crops and in many cases grow a second crop of some type that keeps much of the ground covered.
We still have many of the wind breaks that were planted at the end of the dust bowl and plowing is not done right up to the fences in most cases.
The drought during the 1950’s was actually worse than the dust bowl but due to changes in farming the effect was not as bad.
This drought is now in the forth year and in the past they last five to seven years.
Much of the new effect in my area is due to the massive population growth and the water use that has followed.
All of the longer droughts of the past have ended with large floods.
I was living as a young man on our family ranch during the 1950’s drought and it ended in 1957 with a 7 inch rain that fell in two hours.
We had a diversified operation at that time and grew wheat, raised beef cattle and had a dairy.
One of my jobs during 1954-56 was to shoot all bull dairy calves.
We gave away all that we could and when shipping cost were more than we sold them for we had to kill them.
We raised the females on a bottle because the mothers could not produce enough milk to feed them.
We got out of the dairy business after that drought and stayed with beef cattle.
Three of us made a deal with a rancher in south Texas to buy all of the cattle that we could round up in three days for $15 per head.
Three of us took nine horses and roped and rounded up 125 head.
We left there with three cowboys and nine horses that were worn out.
That was my first experience in the brush country where everything stuck, bit or scratched.


One point about drought is that it is a major cause for our deer being smaller than northern deer.
Small body size survives better in drought conditions than larger bodies so after many cycles of drought the smaller type dominate.