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Thread: Drought

  1. #1
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    Default Drought

    By BLAKE NICHOLSON, Associated Press

    BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Drought in much of North Dakota this summer is likely to reduce the number of ducks available to hunters in the fall.

    Duck broods in the state are down 5 percent from last summer, according to a recently concluded survey by the state Game and Fish Department. Officials cite a longer-term trend of less grassland habitat and fewer wetlands this year.

    Fewer wetlands impact ducks in several ways, according to Game and Fish Migratory Game Bird Supervisor Mike Szymanski. There's less water to attract breeding ducks in the spring, fewer insects to feed young ducks, and longer distances for young ducks to travel on foot after they leave the nest, making them more vulnerable to predators.

    "Early season hunting probably won't be as good," Szymanski said. "Our hunters are going to be more reliant on (ducks) coming out of Saskatchewan (Canada) later in the fall."

    The number of those migratory birds is "at the whim of Mother Nature," Szymanski said, and Game and Fish is estimating an overall fall duck flight in North Dakota that's down 8 percent from last year.

    The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map shows 82 percent of North Dakota in some stage of drought. Most of central and western North Dakota remains in extreme or exceptional drought, the two worst categories.

    The amount of water available to ducks in the state was down 38 percent from last summer, with much of the loss in smaller, seasonal wetlands that dried up, according to the survey. Given that the state had the fewest number of breeding ducks in nearly a quarter century due primarily to reduced habitat, the duck production drop could have been worse.

    "Semi-permanent wetlands were in such good shape coming out of winter, they were able to withstand some of the effects of drought," Szymanski said. "If this were to continue another year, we'll start to see the impact on larger, deeper wetland basins."


    Game and Fish plans a September survey to assess wetland conditions heading into the waterfowl hunting seasons. Opening day for ducks for North Dakota residents is Sept. 23. Nonresidents can begin hunting waterfowl in the state a week later.

  2. #2
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    The ground is so dry and deeply cracked on Todd Lewis’s farm in southern Saskatchewan that he says if a wrench is dropped down one of the crevasses, “we’ll never find it.”

    “If you dropped a rod down there that was eight or nine feet long, you wouldn’t hit the bottom of that crack,” Lewis told The Canadian Press. “It would disappear.”


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    READ MORE: Rain greatly needed for Saskatchewan’s arid and parched crop land

    Lewis, who is also president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, farms near Gray south of Regina, and the region has been extremely dry.

    Environment Canada figures show Regina had only 1.8 millimetres of rain last month — the driest July in 130 years. It was the driest July ever recorded in the city of Moose Jaw, about 70 kilometres west of Regina. Moose Jaw got 4.3 millimetres of rain in July, less than the 4.6 millimetres it got in 1929.

    It was also hot.

    Regina had 11 days over 30 C in July. The city of Swift Current, about 245 kilometres west of Regina, saw 14 days over 30 C.

    Lewis said canola is taking the hardest hit because of the heat and might only yield half the crop of an average year.

    “We’re always optimistic being involved in agriculture, but really we’re going to have a down year, no question,” he said.

    WATCH MORE: Harvest starts in Saskatchewan despite dry weather


    But Lewis said areas south and west of his farm are in “a pretty desperate situation.”

    “A lot of cases, those fields won’t even get combined, they’re so poor,” he said.

    Ranchers in southern Saskatchewan are also facing poor grazing conditions and have scaled back hay cutting because of the hot, dry weather.

    Trevor Hadwen, an agro-climate specialist with Agriculture Canada, said the agency is concerned.

    “We know that producers in the southern portion of the province are looking at hay shortages or feed shortages for the fall and winter,” Hadwen said.

    Agriculture Canada’s latest drought monitor map for July won’t be out until next week but Hadwen says it will show severe drought conditions in much of southern Saskatchewan, with patches of extreme drought.

    It’s probably one of the fifth driest years on record for agriculture, but the situation is “no where near the impact of (1930) in terms of size or severity,” Hadwen said.

    “What we have this year is a fairly localized, intense drought situation that some crops are doing fairly well through and some crops are suffering,” he said.

    The dry conditions are also affecting water sources for cattle.

    In mid-July, about 200 cattle were found dead in a pasture in southwestern Saskatchewan after they drank toxic water.

    Provincial officials said hot weather caused evaporation, which left a sulphate concentration of more than 24,000 milligrams per litre in the water. Sulphate concentrations over 7,000 per litre can kill cattle.

    WATCH MORE: Rancher reacts to 200 dead cattle near Chaplin, Sask.


    There were 59 calls to Saskatchewan’s Farm Stress Line in July — compared to 16 the same time last year.

    Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart, who farms near Pense just west of Regina, said he’s not surprised.

    “Producers in the hardest hit areas are concerned,” Stewart said. “They’re seeing a crop that they put a lot of money into, and that got off to a pretty good start, deteriorate pretty rapidly through July.”

    “Guys are figuring out that they’re going to have a tough time paying some of their bills and farmers just don’t want to grow poor crops. It’s a thing with us farmers, especially when you see a crop start off real good and look beautiful and then go downhill.”

    READ MORE: Tweet spurs conversation about farmer suicide, mental health supports

    Stewart said any rain at this point would likely be too little, too late for most crops.

    “Generally speaking, this crop is too far advanced to help now,” he said.

    In Regina, parched soil is also causing the ground to shift and that’s pulling power meter boxes away from homes.

    SaskPower, the Crown utility company, said seven meters caught fire over two weeks. About 800 of 2,000 meters inspected as of Tuesday needed repairs.

    John Paul Cragg, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, said there is one thing to remember about the weather.

    “Things in Saskatchewan can switch on a dime,” he said. “It’s very hard to tell what will happen with this dryness, whether it will persist, whether the precipitation pattern will change and they’ll start seeing more precipitation in the south.”

    © 2017 The Canadian Press

  3. #3
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    DU will report record numbers like every year
    "And ignoring people on here....that's like being home schooled. Just say you're not ready to face life." Highstrung

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    So Duck Season is cancelled this year?

  5. #5
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    I just ordered a set of golfing clubs from Amazon...

  6. #6
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    Looks like they are going to have to increase the bag limit on clay pigeons this year.

  7. #7
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    Hate to hear this, I love the Regina and Saskatoon areas.
    RIP Kelsey "Bigdawg" Cromer
    12-26-98 12-1-13

    If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever.

    Missing you my great friend.


  8. #8
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    Canceled my plane tickets this weekend

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sportin' Woodies View Post
    Canceled my plane tickets this weekend
    So sorry to hear it. $FU I mean #Fuck this drought...

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sportin' Woodies View Post
    Canceled my plane tickets this weekend
    Could not happened to a NICER Guy.
    Gettin old is for pussies! AND MY NEW TRUE people say like Capt. Tom >>>>>>>>>/
    "Wow, often imitated but never duplicated. No one can do it like the master. My hat is off to you DRDUCK!"

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by JABIII View Post

    “If you dropped a rod down there that was eight or nine feet long, you wouldn’t hit the bottom of that crack,” Lewis told The Canadian Press. “It would disappear.”

    Holy crap
    When in doubt, shoot him again!

    Work like it's all up to me, but pray, like it's all up to him!

  12. #12
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    Talked to the guy we hunt with up there, said it as bad as he has seen.

  13. #13
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    But global warming is causing all the ice caps to melt......
    When in doubt, shoot him again!

    Work like it's all up to me, but pray, like it's all up to him!

  14. #14
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    Periodic drought is essential to prarie pothole productivity. Without being exposed to air from time to time, the muck at the bottom becomes anaerobic, and cannot support any life, from microbes to the shrimp and other invertebrates that make the potholes so productive.

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    Quote Originally Posted by GMAC View Post
    Periodic drought is essential to prarie pothole productivity. Without being exposed to air from time to time, the muck at the bottom becomes anaerobic, and cannot support any life, from microbes to the shrimp and other invertebrates that make the potholes so productive.
    Don't bring biology and stuff up in here.

    Guess I'll keep the trolling motor on the job boat.
    "Think A Guy Like Me Worries About Percentages?" Tin Cup

    "Some get spiritual cause they see the light, and some cause they feel the heat" Ray Wylie Hubbard

    "P.S. I love turkeys. Mostly just hate those who hunt em." Glenn

  16. #16
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    Actually, I meant to end with: '"but what do the the biologists know"?

  17. #17
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    Some of our guy's have had to flee their land because the beavers were swimming through their living rooms, so we are looking at this drought as a huge plus. Lots of areas we hunt will be dust, but like GMAC says, it is all good...

  18. #18
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    I don't think that the actual FWS report shows much negative change from last year in that, or any other, area:

    https://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/p...usReport17.pdf

  19. #19
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    Doubling down on grain futures. Tamie sales gonna be up in 2018!

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by jasonw View Post
    Tamie sales gonna be up in 2018!
    I heard something today that suggests otherwise, but I would not bet against your premise...

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