Tagged: drought 2012

Missouri has approved more than 4,900 requests from farmers for help in improving their water supplies amid Missouri's extreme drought.

Roy Pralle is an 85-year-old retired farmer from Latimer, Iowa. He spends most afternoons playing cribbage with other retired farmers at Dudley's Corner, a diner attached to a gas station in north-central Iowa.

A University of Missouri veterinary professor says farmers need to be careful when feeding drought-damaged corn to their livestock.

Many homeowners are seeing the impact of the drought with cracked walls in the basement, forcing thousands of dollars in repair bills that insurance generally doesn't cover.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that basement repair companies are overwhelmed with calls from customers about cracking and shifting foundations.

The drought has drained moisture from the soil for several feel underground. Drying clay shrinks, which undermines support beneath basements.

The recent break from Missouri's oppressive summer heat has done little to help crops and pastures.

In its weekly update, the Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday that supplies of topsoil and subsoil moisture were just 1 percent adequate — with the 1 percent due to irrigation in southeastern Missouri.

Ninety-eight percent of pastures throughout Missouri were ranked in poor to very condition, and livestock producers are still coping with massive shortages of stock water.

Ecologists in Kansas and Missouri say extreme temperatures are killing a large number of butterflies and could hurt their southern migration next month.

Millions of monarch butterflies are expected to migrate south through the two states in less than a month in their seasonal trip from Canada to Mexico.

KSHB-TV reports the Powell Botanical Gardens annual butterfly festival east of Kansas City is seeing the lowest number of monarchs in a decade.

It’s hot and dry out in western Kansas in a good year. South of Dodge City, the native grass is tough. So are the ranchers. But this year is not a good year.