Rangeland Management News

With the Driest August Through May Since 1976–77, Plains Still 20 Inches Short of Drought Recovery

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:57:16 GMT

Recent rains across parts of the Plains, South and Northern Rockies are providing much-needed relief to drought-stricken areas, but USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says producers shouldn’t expect a quick recovery. Fresh data released Monday shows the U.S. just experienced its driest August–May stretch since 1976–77, underscoring how deeply entrenched the nation’s moisture deficit remains even as the weather pattern begins to show signs of improvement.

Looking at the shorter window, Rippey says conditions are even more striking: the August-through-April period ranked as the third-driest in more than 130 years of records. With deficits this large still in place across key production areas, he says some of the hardest-hit regions may ultimately need an additional 10 to 20 inches of rainfall, and months of favorable weather, to fully break free from severe drought conditions.

Despite near-normal precipitation during May 2026, the 10-month stretch from August 2025to May 2026 was the six-driest stress on record, but the driest since 1976-1977.

(NOAA)

That reality stands in contrast to the recent uptick in precipitation, including widespread rains across Montana, parts of the Plains and more than a foot of rainfall in sections of the Gulf Coast region over the past month. Together, those events point to a weather pattern that is beginning to shift after a prolonged dry stretch.

“We have started to turn the corner in recent weeks. There is no doubt about that,” Rippey says. “Some of the driest areas of the country across the Great Plains and the South have picked up meaningful precipitation. That’s really important for summer crops.”

Still, he cautions that the recent improvement comes after an extraordinary period of dryness that built a significant moisture debt across much of the country.

“This drought is a long time coming,” Rippey says. “If you look at the entire period from August 2025 to April 2026, that nine-month period ending April 2026 was the third driest over the last 130-plus years for the nation as a whole. And for some areas in the hardest-hit drought areas, it was the driest on record.”

Topsoil moisture maps show where the deficits are the most severe.

(USDA )

Drought Recovery Won’t Happen Overnight

While the recent rains are helping improve soil moisture and supporting summer crops, Rippey says digging out of such a deep drought hole will require much more than a few timely storms.

“It would take 10 to 20 inches of rain to break the drought. Even now, even with what we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks, that’s a year’s worth of precipitation for some of the High Plains areas,” he says. “So it is not going to be an overnight process. Yes, the rain is good, but it will take considerable time, months in fact, to see meaningful recovery, even if we continue to see normal or above-normal rainfall this summer.”

Pasture and range conditions.

(USDA )

That reality is especially evident in forage production.

“For pastures and range, it’s complicated, but obviously we’ve gone through that first cutting for many areas without much to cut,” Rippey says. “Now we will see some revival of the pastures and rangelands, but it takes time. And the longer these areas have been in drought, the longer it’s going to take for full recovery.”

He says some of the most severely affected regions could still be dealing with lingering impacts well into next year.

“We may go well through 2026 without too much recovery in some of these hardest-hit High Plains drought areas.”

Montana Sees Significant Moisture

Among the biggest beneficiaries of the recent weather pattern change has been Montana.

Over the past week, much of the state received between 1 and 3 inches of rainfall, while portions of central and western Montana recorded as much as 6 inches. Some locations saw record-breaking rainfall totals.

The moisture is helping stabilize conditions, but Rippey says the recent rains must be viewed in the context of the enormous precipitation deficits that have accumulated over time.

Too Much Rain in Some Areas

While many producers are celebrating the return of rain, others are dealing with the opposite problem.

Southern Mississippi, for example, received more than two feet of rainfall during May.

“They need the taps to turn off at this point,” Rippey says.

Even so, drought remains widespread nationally.

“There’s still plenty of the country that needs more rain,” he says. “Over the last two months, we have seen more than 60% of the lower 48 states in drought. Even with the rain that we’ve seen recently, that continues now. So there’s plenty of areas that need more rain to break the drought.”

June Outlook: Dryness Emerging in the North

Looking ahead, Rippey says one of the most notable weather developments has been the reversal of conditions between the northern and southern parts of the country.

“One thing that’s interesting in recent weeks, we have kind of flipped the drought situation on its head,” he says. “Obviously the driest areas of the South have gotten rain. We started to dry out a little bit now across the North where it had been rather wet. I think that trend generally will continue.”

The latest drought outlook shows persisting drought across the southern Texas, much of the West, as well as the mid-Atlantic region.

(NOAA)

While some rain has recently moved into portions of the Upper Midwest, Rippey says producers should watch closely for developing dryness.

“We are seeing a little bit of a break and getting some rain in the Upper Midwest now, but that’s one area we’ll have to watch. Northern Plains, Upper Midwest, warm, dry weather could continue to deplete topsoil moisture.”

State topsoil moisture reports are beginning to reflect those concerns. Areas reporting short to very short topsoil moisture are increasing across Nebraska and the Dakotas, with pockets also developing farther east.

“Parts of Wisconsin had its driest May on record,” Rippey says. “So that is definitely one area to watch for emerging dryness and drought. That is a concern for the month of June.”

Despite those concerns, Rippey says most of the Corn Belt remains in relatively good shape.

“We have only roughly a quarter of the U.S. corn and soybean production areas in drought at this point,” he says. “A lot of that’s in the far West as you get into southern South Dakota and Nebraska, for example. So we’re still looking pretty good in the Midwest. And I think generally speaking, that will continue through the month of June.”

Western U.S. Facing New Moisture Challenges

The West is another region Rippey is monitoring closely as summer heat intensifies.

“We’ve been kind of living on borrowed time there,” he says. “The snow melted early, and as we get into this pre-monsoon season, the West is going to start running out of moisture and that will be a concern.”

As temperatures rise, irrigation demand is expected to increase.

“Irrigation demands are going to go up. Heat is going to build. That’s one area I’m watching as we get into early summer for running out of moisture.”

El Niño Not Here Yet, But It’s Close

Another major weather story producers are watching is the development of El Niño.

Rippey says the climate pattern has not officially arrived, but that declaration could come soon.

“We are not into El Niño yet. It is imminent,” he says. “I think either this month or next month there will be an official declaration from the National Weather Service that says we are in the beginning stages of El Niño.”

For the United States, Rippey expects two primary impacts this summer.

The first could be a quieter Atlantic hurricane season.

“Number one would be a suppressed Atlantic hurricane season,” he says. “So we may actually see some dry conditions along the Gulf and the southern Atlantic related to lack of tropical activity.”

The second potential impact is an enhanced Southwest monsoon.

“Once we get into the monsoon season, July and beyond, it could be quite robust and active,” Rippey says. “That could provide drought relief starting in the Southwest, eventually expanding to the north from there. That could help with the western drought situation.”

While the strongest impacts of El Niño may not be felt until later this year, Rippey says all indications point toward a potentially strong event.

Crickets Galore! Why the Mass Accumulation Isn't That Weird After All

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 17:58:19 GMT

If you’re seeing more crickets than normal this year, don’t worry. Experts say cricket swarms — thousands of field crickets assembling in one location — may be annoying, but they pass with time.

Wizzie Brown, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service integrated pest management specialist, says the annual phenomenon can be startling, but it’s nothing to fear and only temporary.

“These swarms happen every late summer and fall to some degree,” she said in a release . “The crickets don’t sting or bite, so they’re not doing anything other than being annoying, especially if a male gets in your house and is chirping to attract females.”

Cricket Coincidence
When and where cricket swarms pop up are random, Brown adds. One year you may see incredibly high cricket numbers and the next two years you don’t. The cause of these mass accumulations of field crickets isn’t so random, however.

The cricket cycle is spurred on by cool fronts, because crickets don’t like heat. They hatch in early spring, reach adulthood in three months and, by the heat of summer, are looking for places to stay cool, she explains.

They forage on dead insects and vegetation at night and keep a relatively low profile during the heat of the day. Cool fronts in the waning weeks of summer and early fall change that, Brown says.

They also like to swarm to the light. Buildings with bright, dusk-to-dawn lighting attract them.

“You’ll notice they tend to congregate around the front doors of businesses — at gas stations, car dealerships and other businesses and locations that have highly luminous lighting that is on all night,” Brown says. “If you’ve noticed crickets around your house, it’s probably in relation to lighting.”

Seasonal Swarms
If the numbers of crickets seem outlandish, Brown notes there can be multiple generations of crickets in a year, especially in warmer regions. Warm winters can also contribute to the number of cricket generations per year.

Like most insects, field crickets’ numbers rise, peak and fall seasonally. The window for crickets to gather in mass typically lasts four to six weeks before their numbers begin to decline, she says.

Turning off unnecessary lights can reduce the chance crickets will swarm around your home or business. There are also specialty bulbs that are less attractive to insects.

“Attracting crickets can lead to them getting inside structures and homes, especially with poor sealing around doors and windows,” Brown says. “A bunch of dead crickets can be a stinky mess, so it’s smart to leave the lights off as much as possible as that summer-to-fall transition happens.”

7 Reasons Your Best Employees Quit

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 21:11:54 GMT

Learn how to avoid these frustrating and deal-breaking mistakes

Yes, recruiting members for your team is extremely difficult. But before you spend your time and energy on that challenge, focus first on your current team.

“Put retention in front of recruiting,” suggests Mel Kleiman, president of Humetrics, a human resource consulting firm. “Become a place that people want to work, and then when people hear you have an opening, they come to you.”

How do you prioritize retention? Analyze why employees leave your farm. Many times, their departures fall into these categories.

1. Substandard Co-Workers: “The good employees aren’t paid enough to cover for or put up with the hiring mistakes,” Kleiman says. Don’t force your good employees to compensate for others who are lazy, indifferent or undependable.

2. Mind-Numbing Tasks: New employees are often handed boring and repetitive jobs. Even in downtimes, come up with meaningful work, suggests Erika Osmundson, director of marketing and communications for AgCareers.com. Find ways to make roles on your farm fun or challenging.

3. No Attention or Authority: “When a supervisor is so busy fighting the fires created by problem employees, he or she never has any time for his best people,” Kleiman says. Many times, this busy leader also fails to delegate authority to capable employees, leaving those employees frustrated.

4. No Training: Forgot that often-repeated phrase that training is not a good investment because “they’ll leave in three months anyway.” Establish an ongoing training plan, suggests Wesley Tucker, University of Missouri Extension agricultural business specialist. “Utilize multiple methods to ensure employees absorb and retain critical information,” he says. “Look for opportunities for both formal and spontaneous training.”

5. No Chance for Advancement: Do you share insights about future opportunities or positions? Recognize how advancements drive retention and job satisfaction. “A lot of times, we hire young people and think they are great,” says Dave Allen, president of Agri-Search, a placement firm for agricultural jobs. “So, you let them go do their thing. But, if you forget about them, they will be gone in two years.”

6. Lack of Respect: Employees need positive recognition, Kleiman says. “Praise in public and criticize in private,” he says. Many times, supervisors avoid positive feedback for fear the recipient might ask for a raise – this is the wrong approach.

7. Scheduling Conflicts: When an employer promises “flexible hours,” but it turns out “flexible hours” means having to work whenever and however long the manager wants them to, good employees look for the exit door. “Structure work schedules to allow for flexibility,” Osmundson suggests. “Maybe you can work shortened hours during certain parts of the year. Look for unique ways you can offer flexibility.”

Learn more tips on how to lead your team at the at the 2021 Top Producer Summit. Register now!

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‘Tis the Season for Appreciation

Dan Murphy: In Praise of The Range

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 05:52:19 GMT

The one aspect of our global ecosystem that’s consistently, ignored, abused and neglected is the Earth’s rangelands. For the sake of animal agriculture — and the health of the planet — that needs to change.

Here’s a fun little exercise to try out on friends, family and neighbors.

First, ask them if they know about “rangelands,” explaining that you’re talking about the areas in the United States and around the world where precipitation and/or climate conditions are such that trees don’t grow, where there are no natural forests, only various shrubs and species of grass.

Generally, when I’ve tried this, I get a response something along the lines of, “Yeah — I get it; I’m not stupid!”

I guess I need to work on my presentation skills.

But the point of the exercise is to then ask the person the key question: How much of the Earth’s surface area would you estimate to consist of rangeland?

And that’s where I get to take some smug (but silent) satisfaction in their earlier “I’m not stupid” assertion, because rarely do people correctly identify that fully one-half of all the land in the world is rangeland.

That’s because most people think only about the pastures they see driving through farm country or the dusty plains that seem to dominate the landscape in virtually every Western movie ever filmed.

Occasionally, people recognize that there are other grasslands in the world, such as the savannahs of Africa’s Serengeti that have been popularized in numerous wildlife documentaries.

Actually, the Serengeti, which covers more than 12,000 square miles — about the size of Maryland and Delaware combined — is a mixed ecosystem of treeless plains, acacia woodlands and even semi-tropical rain forests, but much of that land does consist of tall grass where lions are waiting to pounce on some poor, unsuspecting antelope.

But in mentally calculating the extent of the world’s rangelands, people forget that “range” also includes the Eurasian steppes extending from Eastern Europe all the way to China, a vast, flat expanse of grasslands that provided a highway for Genghis Khan to sweep across most of Asia and Europe and which later was where the Silk Road trade route connecting China and India with the emerging kingdoms of Europe in the Middle Ages was established.

And in almost all cases, people neglect to include the Arctic tundra in calculating what should be classified as rangeland. But from northern Alaska to Canada’s Yukon to much of Greenland to northern Scandinavia and Siberia, tundra represents millions of square miles of habitat for grazing animals, such as caribou and musk ox, and for the nomadic people who for centuries have domesticated herds of reindeer.

(By the way: Along with the superstorms spawned by warming ocean temperatures, the rapid melting of permafrost areas across the world’s tundra is one of the most urgent threats caused by climate change. The lichen, grasses and shrubs of tundra regions were once a carbon sink, trapping CO2 within vegetation and soil. But as the permafrost melts, tundra is becoming a carbon source, releasing incalculable amounts of CO2 and methane into the atmosphere).

Underappreciated — and undervalued

So why does it matter that half of the world’s land mass consists of broadly defined rangeland? Because these vast, open areas are not only ill-suited to cultivation of the row crops vegans insist should be the primary sources of food for all of humanity, but more importantly, because rangelands provide forage for livestock, habitat for wildlife and serve as vital sources of fresh water.

Forget the value of the recreational opportunities and the importance of their unique ecosystems. Without the utilization of grasslands and the animals that live therein, billions of people worldwide would struggle to survive.

In North America, we have failed to preserve the grasslands that once covered millions of square miles of the continent, instead plowing up the prairies and paving over a resource that has been severely undervalued from the day Europeans first set foot on the shores of the New World.

Currently, most people assess the importance of rangeland by whether they believe grazing animals are an asset or a liability to the eco-health of America’s grasslands. For anti-industry activists and the most vocal of the veganistas, it’s axiomatic that all cattle should be permanently banned from what is, in fact, their natural habitat.

For those folks who earn a living in animal agriculture, however, that misconception cannot be dismissed as mere disinformation. Grazing animals are as much a vital part of rangeland ecosystems as the plants, birds and other wildlife they support, and that fact must be aggressively and proactively shared with the public, in every venue, at every opportunity and through every communication channel available.

The folks involved in animal agriculture never tire of defending the value, the contributions and the importance of the animals they raise.

The same advocacy needs too be conducted on behalf of the rangelands on which those animals ultimately depend.

The opinions in this commentary are those of Dan Murphy, a veteran journalist and commentator.

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