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Post by mustelameister on Jul 23, 2012 21:06:39 GMT -6
Not all the marshes are drying up, but we're at critical stage here with respect to muskrat recruitment. Pic from a couple of years ago . . .  And now this week:  Here's the last 'rat run I could find walking the banks this morning.  This side slough had a good three feet of water in the middle. Had a colony trap under that horizontal log center left last season.  There was four feet of water in the center of this pond. 'Coon have been having a feast on the fish in the receding waters.  Could be a small 'rat take this coming season on northern 'rats. Anyway, for what it's worth. |
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Post by trappnman on Jul 24, 2012 6:19:24 GMT -6
wow-
we are lucky in my area, we have had rain when we needed it, in fact, raining now. I've never seen crops as good as they are this year, and I have some farmers that will be taking 4th crop of hay this week.
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Post by mtcbrlatrap on Jul 24, 2012 11:58:08 GMT -6
Well over half of my sloughs are dry. Small rats dead on the road looking for water. Same with coons with all the puddles, sloughs and trickle streams dry the coons are all over the roads and into farmsteads and residences looking for water. YOY the year need a lot of water while eating a lot of protein to grow and develop and that is getting hard to find. Large flocks of geese feeding in the combined wheat fields till after dark to avoid the hot sun and high temps. It will be interesting this fall. The northern portion of my line has about adequate to short water supply and crop conditions are pretty good. Just 10 miles south it is short to extremely short with lots of crops in critical stages with yields already impacted.
Bryce
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Post by calvin on Jul 24, 2012 12:23:47 GMT -6
Are you guys getting rain today? Hopefully....as it is hitting some places of WI. Just under 3" here so far today.
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Post by mustelameister on Jul 24, 2012 14:17:43 GMT -6
not enough
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Post by trappnman on Jul 24, 2012 19:41:45 GMT -6
about .7 here, we had .5 sat morning as well
20 miles away they had 3 inches, 50 miles away a trace
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Post by RdFx on Jul 24, 2012 20:51:17 GMT -6
Up here in Wausau Wi, farmers are havesting fourth hay crop already also.... lucked out getting at right time.... corn is 7 ft, soyeans two feet plus... BUT we still dont have rats!!!!
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Post by thorsmightyhammer on Jul 24, 2012 21:09:57 GMT -6
best thing for a rat slough is to drain it once in awhile.
Its dry at home too. But hey I live in the land of 10000 lakes. All I need to do is catch one rat off of every one and I'll have an okay season
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dpomm
Tenderfoot...
Posts: 34 
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Post by dpomm on Jul 25, 2012 10:46:46 GMT -6
Gotta like that thinking. Only problem is gas would kill ya at 1 rat per lake.
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Post by thorsmightyhammer on Jul 25, 2012 11:54:41 GMT -6
It wouldnt cost me 80,000(the gas)
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Post by Jarhead620 on Jul 25, 2012 12:16:34 GMT -6
We've had adequate rain here so far. The corn and soybeans look good, but a dry August will cut the yield, especially on the 'beans.
Most of the 'rats in this region are found in the tidal creeks and marshes off of the major rivers. These generally hold up pretty well even in dry seasons. I lost one of my tidal creeks to anti sentiment in the County Public Works Office. This creek produced more than 150 rats most years and I was the only trapper out there. I guess I'll go over and debate the issue with them again this fall.
Larry
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Post by C1972 on Jul 25, 2012 15:48:47 GMT -6
wow- we are lucky in my area, we have had rain when we needed it, in fact, raining now. I've never seen crops as good as they are this year, and I have some farmers that will be taking 4th crop of hay this week. Exactly the way I was this time last year Steve. Now?....DUSTBOWL almost! |
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Post by mustelameister on Jul 26, 2012 6:44:48 GMT -6
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Post by bblwi on Jul 26, 2012 15:27:18 GMT -6
Just got home from two days in Door County and the neighbor said it rained hard and long last night and this afternoon while we were gone about 3.7 inches in the gauage when I got home!!!!! We will have beans, sweet corn and spuds now!! Maybe rats but sloughs are still bone dry. I thought I heard some strange noise when I got out of the car and it was the leaves on the trees sucking up the moisture!.
A good start!
Bryce
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Post by trappnman on Jul 27, 2012 7:12:31 GMT -6
another 1/2 inch here last evening- the twin cities are close to 7 inches above average
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myst
Demoman...
Posts: 113
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Post by myst on Jul 29, 2012 16:49:59 GMT -6
If they keep digging the river deeper the lower it goes.
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Post by mtcbrlatrap on Jul 31, 2012 11:04:52 GMT -6
The last 3 days we received an additional 1.5 inches or more so we are at about 5 inches in the last 6 days. Several of the sloughs now have water in them but the river levels have not risen much as our water table is still quite low. Sure has helped our stressed out corn crop. I am setting up corn silage dry down days for our farmers today. We are about 2 weeks a head of normal. That will mean we probably won't have much even High moisture shell corn in the fields come late October. With the high prices guys will harvest and pay some additonal drying costs to cut back on field loss.
Bryce
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Post by northof50 on Jul 31, 2012 22:01:43 GMT -6
The heat has turned on the cat-tail growth. Over 10 feet tall and still 2 months of growth.
Our water tables are down,,,Lake Winnipeg has dropped another 3 feet from evaporation. Yet Saskatchewan has record run-off going into the Assinibione River.
Road kill report from Winnipeg to Theif River Minn.....3 mink, 2 skunks and one day time live wandering coon (K9 distemper is bad this summer)
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Post by mustelameister on Aug 1, 2012 5:26:12 GMT -6
Bryce . . local farmer was in the cafe talking about trucking hay bales "out west" getting $15 apiece plus gas.
How are the Dakotas doing? Quite a few guys here are making plans for North Dakota next early spring.
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Post by mtcbrlatrap on Aug 1, 2012 10:31:44 GMT -6
I don't know how dry the total Dakotas are but both states make a lot of hay especially SD and they have been drier than ND. The real drought area for forages would be MO, Central and Southern ILL, parts of KY and probably OK. NE would be dry but they irrigate a lot and their aquifer is drying up and so are their rivers. It will be interesting to see how long some of those areas will have water to irrigate with. If these are small squares that would be $600 per ton on average plus transportation which is sky high. In our area good dairy hay is selling for $200-250 per ton. Western WI is higher as is southern WI. Commodity prices have dropped about 30-50 cents per bushel the last couple days that is corn, beans and wheat. I don't think it reflects a better crop but it reflects that usage is going down based on economics. If you used 100K bushels per year of corn at say $6.00 per bushel one would really do some fine tooth math and business planning to lower usage if it is $8.50 or more. We are seeing some very high cull rates for dairy cattle as the hot weather has driven down production and many of the poorer cows are being sent to market earlier than planned as they are now below the profitable cost of production with less milk, lower components and higher feed costs. Many are doing inventory management now and I am helping with several of those cases. We will see a lot of shrinking of production in the livestock area as it is just not cost effective to produce more at very, very narrow margins. Risks get really. really high.
Bryce
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