Praying for rain

A buck walks through drought-ravaged fields in search of food
photo courtesy Dave Richey Outdoors ©2012

Rain is a necessary commodity. It has many uses other than messing up the vacation plans of tourists.

The Great Lakes are still low, as are many inland lakes. The woods were bone dry, and when it's as dry as it has been, the chance of a wild fire (once called a forest fire) goes up.

Farmers have been looking for rain, and what we've been given in the past several days hasn’t ended our drought conditions. A drought occurs when the ground is baked dry, and dust puffs up with every step. It's what we've dealt with for months.

Fields are dust-bowl dry

The rain, including that which rumbled through the area about midnight two nights ago, was a heavy downpour. The problem with that is it fell so hard and fast that little soaked into the ground. It's better to get a steady rain that slowly soaks the ground than a deluge.

My food plots look miserable, and I'm hoping rain comes in time to save this years crop. Two or three clover patches look awful, especially during our two-week spate of dry 90-degree weather.

If some rain comes in a few days, as is forecast, we may still have decent food plots. My Imperial Whitetail Clover, Brassica and Purple-Top turnip plantings were almost burned up by the hot sun two and three weeks ago. I'm keeping a close watch on it. Drought conditions just do not produce the quality of food plots that most of us desire.

Many farmers wonder if they will get a decent second-cutting of hay this year. Cornfields are not growing well but some feel a second cutting of hay isn’t in the cards this year either. It's much the same with clover and other things planted as food plots.

Some state areas have had plenty of rain while other locations, such as around Traverse City, has suffered. I'd counted on making three or four plantings but that didn’t work out.

I will hold off on other plantings until next spring, and see how my plots make it. I'd been thinking of some winter wheat planted on some of my woods trails to give the deer some greenery to eat this fall, and it could come up and provide an early source of easy-to-find nourishment. Such a planting this fall is now in doubt.

I’m not a farmer but do the best I can with my food plots

I've said this before, and will say it again, but I'm not well learned in planting and growing things. I discuss my food plots with people I trust, and then hope the weather conditions are suitable for producing good crops.

It's one of these late-in-life situations where I hope to put something back into the resources, provide better cover and food for the animals and birds. I'm learning that Mother Nature has a somewhat perverted sense of humor: she teases us with rain, and then sends it north or south. To add insult to injury, she often decides to send us more snow.

My eyes are peeled for my Imperial Whitetail Clover plantings. Some seems to be greening up a bit, but most of our crop was brown and down. We did the soil tests, planted at the proper time, had a bit of rain early, and then the drought began just as it did several years ago.

It's difficult watching a crop go downhill, but I now have a better understanding of what farmers go through on a yearly basis.  A drought serves no one, whether a farmer growing crops for market or a sportsman who plants crops for the wildlife.

Food plots from other years came up; Not this year

Nature and the weather can be incredibly cruel at times. We invest our sweat equity into seed, fertilizer and lime, and hope for the best, which would be to have a mediocre crop, and it will only happen with even more rain, sunshine and warm weather.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for much more rain. I try to be optimistic in all things, but it’s very hard to think that way this year about food plots.

Time will soon tell whether we will give the land a good drink or if drought condition will continue.