Drought in the Dakotas

Insurance and Hay Stocks Help Some, But Crops are Lost and Cattle Being Sold. Mark Watne, president of the North Dakota Farmers Union, has been touring parts of western North Dakota this past week to talk to producers about the farm bill. The farther north and west, the worst the conditions are for farmers and ranchers, he said."It's a crisis. It's way more than people think. I've driven through areas where you would expect to see a spindly wheat stand, but there's no crop left -- it's gone," Watne said. "It's almost hard to tell what they did out there."Driving through South Dakota, nearly every open roadside ditch along state highways is now baled. Most cattle producers in western North Dakota have seen their pastures dry up and there is little hay in the area. Any bare nook or cranny -- or piece of grass -- is getting cut up for hay.USDA has opened up the Conservation Reserve Program for haying, but there are growing complaints that landowners are charging exorbitant prices for hay coming off that CRP ground. "I've heard some of those complaints," Watne said.