North Dakota

Ranchers Battle Drought in N. Dakota
Associated Press, September 14, 2000

For the first time in a dozen years, Steven Brooks is hauling water to his cattle. "It's getting worse all the time," the Bowman, N.D., rancher says during a break in his work. "Hopefully, we'll get some moisture soon." Pastures, dam reservoirs, dugouts and creek beds are drying up in southwestern North Dakota and southeastern Montana after a summer of little or no rainfall, and hot weather. "If guys don't have wells, they're getting to be in trouble," says Bill Barnes, manager of the Bowman Auction Market. Rainfall in the state over the Labor Day weekend missed the Bowman area, Brooks says. "We got a few drops, that was all," he says. Many ranchers in the region are weaning their calves early and selling them, putting corn in silage early before the crop dries out and moving cattle off some pastures. The dwindling water supplies for livestock, shriveled hay and feed grain crops and dried-out pastures remind many in the region of the late 1980s, when drought forced some ranchers off the land. "You go out in a field here and there's cracks in the ground you can't see the bottom of," says Clare Messmer, director of the Farm Service Agency office in Dunn County, N.D.

North Dakota Crop Damage from Storms may Rise
Reuters, June 23, 2000

Two rounds of thunderstorms in eastern North Dakota in the fertile Red River Valley area in the last 11 days have caused millions of dollars in crop damage, state officials said Friday. Damage assessments were still under way in 11 counties from Fargo north to the Canadian border, where the leading crops include spring wheat, barley, oats and sugar beets. But a spokeswoman for the North Dakota Department of Agriculture said crop losses in Grand Forks county alone were estimated at roughly $31 million.