Mutton Mondays - The U.S. is thirsty.

If you are a reader of my blog then chances are you read other farming and ranching blogs and you know the land is thirsty.

Image from www.ourcoloradonews.com

We have been so lucky to have our creeks running with water all summer, but our neighbors have not been so lucky. There are twenty seven counties in Colorado that are on the Colorado Disaster Designation list.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has deemed these Colorado counties along with hundreds across the country worthy of assistance and will help offset some of these ranchers and farmers’ losses due to the dry conditions.

The following is from a recent Farm Bureau article:
40 percent of the states faced abnormal dryness or drought. Hardest hit is Texas, which is battling its third-worst drought in state history.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples said more than 2 million acres of Texas farmland has been abandoned due to the drought.

People are abandoning their land, selling their livestock and are calling their 2011 farm crop a total loss. That just break my heart. I can’t imagine. 

I’ve learned that people do not ranch or farm for the money, they ranch or farm because they truly love the lifestyle and selling their livestock or losing their entire crop is heartbreaking.

This is one of the many stresses I have learned comes with this lifestyle. 

There will either always be too much rain or not enough rain. There is either a good year or a bad year. There is no gray area in ranching and farming and this is a tough thing to swallow.

I thank God every day that we are on our way to having a good year. I know this isn’t going to be a yearly guarantee and I know our situation could change tomorrow. I know there will be years that we lose our shirts and I know how those in the disaster area could have so easily been us.

Today and every day I am counting our blessings. We have been so lucky.

Sources: here,  here and here