Monday, July 2, 2012

We Don't Have It So Bad

Sounds like things are a lot worse for crops out in Kansas than they are here:
Records are falling everywhere. Heat maps of the nation are bright red through the nation's midsection and all the way to the eastern seaboard.
One of the worst spots is Hill City, Kansas, where the temperature recently hit 115 degrees -- several days in a row. That is the worst kind of news for farmers in the region. Among them: Ace Billups. He's been farming for more than 40 years. His place in Hill City has about 800 cows, plus he grows corn and wheat and other grains. They -- and he -- are all wilting in the weather.
Ace Billups, nice to talk you.
Ace Billups: Yeah.
Vigeland: How hot is it outside right now?
Billups: Right around 100 right now.
Vigeland: And how long has it been since it rained there?
Billups: Oh, the last real rain we had was about the 20th of April, we had about three-fourths of an inch.
Vigeland: Talk to me about what it's like there on a daily basis, dealing with this heat and trying to save the workings of your farm.
Billups: I'd say it's getting awful depressing. There's virtually nothing to say, I mean, every day you get up and it looks a little bit worse out and a little worse. And then last week when the terrible heat hit, the corn and stuff was holding on -- not good, but just holding on -- but then it just came in and it just took the leaves and turned them like a grayish-white. In a few hours it just went from green to virtually ruining the plants. The corn -- everywhere I've been around here anyway -- the corn is virtually going to be a zero on bushels of corn.
We may have some fields which yield pretty low, but they should be a little above zero.  We got over an inch of rain this weekend, but it came in with some pretty damaging wind too.  I got the power back this morning after almost three days, so I don't have to haul water to the cows.  I just have to tune into the news to know other people are worse off than I am.

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