It’s dry here, and has been for months. Well, droughts happen. We recently did a piece on some things we’d done to drought-proof our food production (you can find that here). In this piece and podcast, Salty and I talk about some of the other issues related to the inevitable droughts.
When the corn gets dry, it sends out ripples
We’re firmly embedded in the corn belt here, and you can’t drive a mile any direction without seeing corn with leaves curling into sharp spikes like a field of spearpoints. That’s bad. Corn yield will be down here, which means prices will be up.
So a can of corn will cost more at the store? Likely not. Only a tiny percentage of corn grown in the U.S. is sweet corn destined for the table; and that percentage isn’t mostly grown here. Most corn goes to feed livestock: Cattle, hogs, chickens. When the corn crop fails, expect prices for meat, milk, and eggs to rise. (This particular drought is pretty local, so this isn’t a prediction about this year; just a thing to know and prep for in general.)
Production crises point up the importance of local self-sufficiency
We also grow a lot of hay here. Some of it gets fed to local cattle in what we call cow-calf operations, where they produce calves, grow them up to yearlings, then ship them off to Nebraska or somewhere to eat corn and soybeans for a few months in a feedlot before being slaughtered. The rest is normally exported.
That’s what our hay fields look like now. You’d get twice as many bales in a normal year.
The first hay cutting was so thin due to the dry spring season, the farmers will probably have to import hay this year. It will come from areas that have been getting more rain in Texas and Arkansas. Those areas though are troubled by the invasive fire ant. (1) . When the hay comes in from Texas, so do the fire ants — and they’re bad neighbors.
Fire ant mounds and what it looks like when you run into one. Are those neighbors you want to invite? *
Why would you care as a prepper? It’s just one example of the hidden problems that pop up when an area is not self-sufficient and has to import what it needs. Then there’s the Big problem with importing: If a resource gets scarce all over, who do you think gets first crack at it: The locals, or the outsiders? The more of our needs we can get locally, the better prepared we are.
Sheltering in Place
Many preppers intend to shelter in place for most scenarios. That might be the best choice. Do keep in mind as part of the equation, though, how that would go with respect to water supply. That problem is most acute in places where the population couldn’t be supported by the local water supply; but transport can also be an issue.
Salty spent some time on Okinawa during a drought as a boy; when the taps brought potable (rust-orange, but potable) water for 2 hrs every other week; for sanitation there were trips to the seashore to bring home salt water. I remember some months when the well went dry and my Mom was literally hauling buckets of water up the hill from the spring (for a family of ten). We assure you, it is not fun when the taps run dry. Visualize how you’re going to manage with the preps you’ve got on hand if the taps stop in Your shelter.
How does your tap water get to you?
Our little community decided maintaining its own water purification was too expensive. Our supply now comes through a 65 mile pipe. If/when a significant earthquake hits, we expect our community to be without water supply for quite a while. A convenient in house-store year round, plus the rain barrel system in non-freezing weather, are our solution.
Where does your water come from? How robust is its supply? Consider likely sources of failure; how long would they be likely to last? The less encouraging your answers are, the more developed your own supply plan must be. I suspect that water shortage will be the most acute problem in a very serious event in the big cities. It was so in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Sooner or later, the rains come back. May you be prepared to wait out the dry in comfort!
Sooner or later the dry ends. The trick is to be prepared to wait it out.
1) Wohleber, Curt. (2012). Beware: Fire Ants, Infested hay bales bring risk of biting and stinging pest. University of Missouri College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources. https://cafnr.missouri.edu/2012/08/beware-fire-ants/
* Photo courtesy of the University of California, Riverside