Wisconsin farmers aren’t out of the woods despite improved drought conditions

Wisconsin farmers have received some timely rains over the past few weeks, improving drought conditions as they prepare to plant their 2024 crops. Despite the improved conditions, farmers remain concerned about lingering impacts of drought conditions in 2023.

Eric Harmann, a cattleman and corn and soybean farmer in Algoma, Wisconsin, in the southern Door Peninsula, says dry weather in 2023 left him struggling to keep his pastures healthy, resulting in him feeding hay to his cattle as early as the end of July. In a typical year, Harmann says he doesn’t feed his cattle hay until November. 

In addition to his pasture health declining, Harmann says he had to rent land for grazing his cattle last year. “We’ve never had to do that before,” he says, “but there’s a possibility that we might supplement with rented grazing in the future.”

Due to the rough pasture conditions last year, Harmann says he’s tearing up one of his pastures this year to plant corn. He says he plans to reseed the pasture next year, and mentions that he learned how to better care for his pastures in future drought years. “We’re going to rotate the pasture to help prevent what happened last year,” Harmann says. 

USDA’s Crop Progress report for Wisconsin for the week ending April 21 shows pasture conditions rated at 37% good/excellent statewide, up from 32% the previous week.

A lack of snow over the winter months has Harmann concerned about soil moisture for his corn and soybean crops this growing season. “Over this winter we probably got an accumulation of 6 to 8 inches of snow in one storm,” Harmann says, “but that melted in about a week.” 

In February, Harmann recalls telling his brother, with whom he works alongside on the farm, that the ground was the driest he’s ever seen during the winter months. “Dust was flying,” Harmann says.

The soil moisture deficit caused by the lack of snow this past winter has Harmann guessing his soil has moisture in just the top 2 to 3 inches. Harmann says he recently dug a hole for a fence post and discovered the ground was “bone dry.” Typically, he says, he’d find water after digging 2 to 3 feet. 

According to USDA in Wisconsin, topsoil moisture conditions rated 5% very short, 16% short, 69% adequate, and 10% surplus. Subsoil moisture conditions rated 5% very short, 23% short, 64% adequate, and 8% surplus.

Because of having timely rains to get his crops started, Harmann says he’s pushing to get his crops in the ground two to three weeks earlier than he would. “We’ve had some timely rains right now,” Harmann says, “so maybe we can catch some of them and it’ll help the crops germinate.”

Sydney Flick, a dairy farmer in Lodi, Wisconsin, north of Madison, says her family’s dairy farm went from a really good year for milk prices in 2022 to seeing prices cut in half in 2023 because of how drought conditions impacted hay prices.

Flick says most of the row crops her family grows feed their 850 head of Jersey cattle. Last year things started off decently, with a few small rainfalls until the middle of May to the second week of June. “We saw no measurable amount of rain,” Flick says, “and we were sitting there getting pretty worried.”

The dry conditions continued throughout the summer months, Flick says, resulting in her farm entering into D3 extreme drought. “It was a borderline exceptional drought,” she says.

Despite the drought conditions last year, Flick says she harvested crops to make feed. However, as a new crop year begins, Flick says she’s running out of alfalfa silage and other forages for her cattle sooner than normal, causing her to look into buying other feedstuffs.

As of the latest drought monitor map, Flick says Columbia County, where her farm is located, has shifted to be abnormally dry. “We aren’t completely out of the woods yet, but hopefully we keep getting some good rain this spring,” she says.

The April 25 drought monitor map for Wisconsin shows 3% of the state in D2 severe drought, 16% in D1 moderate drought, and 25% abnormally dry. The remaining 56% of the state is free from drought stress, up from 47% from the previous week.