A Missouri program to improve the water supplies of drought-stricken farmers could end up costing nearly 15 times the original estimate.
Gov. Jay Nixon announced a $2 million program a month ago in which the state would cover 90 percent of the cost for farmers to drill or deepen wells or expand their irrigation systems. But demand far exceeded expectations, and the governor expanded the program.
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Alfred Brandt says he will have to pay $100,000 in out-of-pocket feed costs to get his 150 Holstein cows fed through next spring.
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This pasture usually has fescue grass that's up to 10 inches high. But there have been just two inches of rain here in the past two months.
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Brandt will have to cull his herd this winter, and sell cows that are not making a profit. That’s sad since some of them have a lifetime of breeding ahead of them.
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Normally the corn Brandt chops fills his two upright silos. This year, the drought hit his crop so hard that he's not able to fill them, even with corn purchased from a neighbor.
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Dan and Laura Pugh wanted to graze their five new sheep on pasture. But the fields were too dry and instead they've had to buy alfalfa -- pellets and some of the fresh stuff -- to keep the sheep healthy. Soon they’ll have to buy some hay.
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The Pughs also buy feed for their 30 chickens.
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The Pughs were hoping their three Berkshire pigs would be able to help them plough up some of the ground to extend the boundaries of their garden. But it’s been so dry the pigs haven’t been able to burrow much.
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The creek that runs through the Pughs’ 50-acre farm is completely dried up.
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They bet they'll make $10,000 for the tomatoes, watermelons, potatoes, onions, beans, peppers, lettuce, spinach, eggplant, beets, carrots, peas, radishes, turnips, squash and zucchini are among the vegetables they've sold at the farmers’ market this year.
Brandt Dairy sits on Swan Creek at the end of a meandering gravel road in Linn, Missouri. The farm is bucolic with its twin silos, red barn and black-and-white Holstein cows. But the brown pastures, dry river bed and burnt corn fields are a reminder that there have been less than two inches of rain here in the last two months.
The ongoing drought has intensified slightly in Missouri over the past week, according to new data released by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska.
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Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill made a campaign stop at a massive granary and fertilizer distributor on the banks of the Missouri River as part of her six-day "Fighting for our Farmers" tour.
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AGRI Services is on Route 24 in Brunswick, Mo.
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Leroy Bedwell, who works for AGRI Services, was at McCaskill's campaign rally. He says the water on the Missouri River is incredibly low.
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Sen. McCaskill talked to farmers about passing the Farm Bill, getting broadband internet access to rural areas, keeping small post offices open and protecting agricultural jobs by preventing federal farm dust regulations from passing.
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AGRI Services gets fertilizer and grain into its facility by barge and train.
Thirty-five farmers and agricultural workers applauded at the site of Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill’s big blue RV pulling up to the back of AGRI Services on Wednesday. The campaign stop at the massive granary and fertilizer distributor on the banks of the Missouri River in Brunswick, Mo. is part of the Democratic incumbent senator’s "Fighting for our Farmers" project.
Ed Greiman, a cattle producer and president-elect of the Iowa Cattlemen, climbs onto the front of a truck hauling silage on his ranch near Garner, Iowa. Like other ranchers, he's getting a feel for what life would be like without a farm bill.
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.
