Wisconsin is having some tough times these days, with no rain. My garden is doing great; I have a well and hoses that reach everything. The crops immediately around us are doing OK, but not as good as they normally are. Gonna be some hungry dairy cattle and broke farmers if things don’t turn around quick! At least our doofus Governor is paying attention for a change! We have 72 counties; 27 are in drought conditions. Not good:
More than two dozen Wisconsin counties now qualify for natural disaster emergency aid due to drought
As severe and extreme drought conditions continue across Wisconsin, people more than two dozen of the state’s counties are now eligible for government aid as a result of natural disaster declarations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A total of 27 Wisconsin counties now carry the disaster designation from USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, either as primary or contiguous counties.
According to the USDA, the primary counties eligible include Adams, Crawford, Dodge, Grant, Green, Juneau, Lafayette, Marquette, Monroe, Richland, Rock and Vernon counties.
The aid is also available for the contiguous — or neighboring — counties of Columbia, Dane, Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Iowa, Jackson, Jefferson, La Crosse, Portage, Sauk, Walworth, Washington, Waukesha, Waushara and Wood counties.
The disaster declarations are based on the U.S. Drought Monitor’s tracking of drought conditions and whether the counties saw eight or more consecutive weeks of either severe, extreme or exceptional drought conditions during the growing season.
People in qualifying counties can get emergency credit and loans from the USDA to help cover the loss of equipment or livestock, farm reorganization, or some forms of debt refinancing. The USDA’s Farm Service Agency will review the loan requests based on the extent of losses, available security, and the ability to repay.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers at the state’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection applauded the designation opening up aid to Wisconsin’s farmers.
“We’re continuing to do everything we can to support our farmers and their families, and we appreciate the help from our federal partners and USDA Secretary Vilsack to support our state’s farmers and our local communities during the recent drought conditions,” Gov. Evers said in a statement Friday.
Much the opposite here in NE, though last year saw drought. and I do not think i actually needed to water the gardens for over a month. Almost 2'' of heavy rain fell just last night, but the tomatoes survived, thank God.
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Thanks and glory to be God in Christ.
Starting to get more Red Deuce and also a few Chadwick Cherry. Ate three this morning. Red Deuce is the commercial hybrid so they're nothing special. Chadwick are heirloom large red cherry and have good flavor. Won't be too long before I have more maters than I can eat. I'm anxiously awaiting Black Cherry, Cherokee Purple & Brandywine. Those are all store bought starts that were discounted for their small size which is why they're later than the rest. All are decent size and have clusters now so it won't be long.
One Chadwick vine is getting crazy long. I'm going out now to do something different with the lean and lower. Neversink farms came up with a system where you lean them on wickets.
Solves the problem I've run into where I need to lean and lower but have clusters near the bottom of the plants. I stuck a jack stand under one a few days ago but I did a little test yesterday and figured out I can do the same using strings and hanging that lower part of the vine to keep it off the ground. Hanging them horizontally by strings, I could also have 2 tiers of horizontal vine where needed.
The image above only shows a single vine but imagine 4-5 vines all laying on a set of wickets. Could get crowded and cause foliar issues. He does it in a high tunnel but I have rain to deal with and piling them on top of each other, they'd never dry out.
Speaking of which, got a couple new meat goat kids in the past few days.
Doe 1: Had two kids but one was either still born or died shortly after birth. It was dead by the time I found out she gave birth which wasn't too long after the kidding because the other one could barely stand and they start walking in 15-30 minutes.
Doe 2: single kid as usual.
The big buck died in March and their gestation period is 150 days aka 5 months so they're likely his. The younger buckling probably wasn't quite sexually mature enough at that time though he is now.
Have no idea if the new kids are male or female. My goats are free range but I need to build a fenced in area where I can catch and contain them at times. Then I can feed some grain and get close to them and get a better look. If either or both are bucklings, I'll need to catch them and band them or sell them which also requires catching them. I had one doe and big buck, that I could pet but they both died for no apparent reason. Both looked healthy as can be. All the others are skittish but I have gotten pretty close to one momma doe.
I'm doing a zero input goat herd so losses are to be expected, at least for a while. No deworming or hoof care. Started with three, made it up to five, two of the original three died bringing it down to three again and now these new kids brings it back up to five.
If at some point I end up not having at least one buck plus one doe to breed, I'm done with goats.
If I end up being able to keep a small herd and take one or two a year for the freezer with absolutely zero input, that's the ticket.
Woo hoo, it is raining!
(2pm Saturday)
A bunch of farms around me have tan bales of hay sitting in the field that they baled a few weeks ago but one smart farmer waited it out and baled a few days after the first heavy rain and has nice green bales.