Drought conditions remained about the same across Mid-Missouri over the last week, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's weekly drought monitor.
Last week, severe drought conditions covered almost all of Cole County, while moderate and severe drought conditions each covered about half of Callaway County, according to the USDA drought monitor. Extreme drought, the third most severe level of drought on the USDA's four-level drought severity scale, covered small portions of northeastern Cole County, western Callaway County and northern Moniteau County.
Conditions remained about unchanged since last week in Mid-Missouri.
Sometimes-heavy rain showers late last week and early this week helped farmers across Mid-Missouri, National Weather Service Hydrologist Mark Fuchs said, but most of the rain went north of Jefferson City.
"There wasn't as much rain toward Jeff City," Fuchs said. "The big improvement was in places like southeast Missouri and northeast Boone County toward Hannibal and Bowling Green."
Through next Tuesday morning, when the drought monitor resets each week, the best chances for rain are today. Fuchs said conditions slowly will start to heat up and return to above average temperatures over the next week. As that happens, the chances for rain will become slimmer.
Looking at NWS data, Missouri looks like a dry island in the middle of a wet sea. Red, orange and yellow colors that represent areas with below average precipitation for the year sit surrounded to the north, east and south by green, blue and purple, which represent areas with above-average precipitation for the year.
Unlike the devastating drought of 2012, which scorched the entire Midwest, Fuchs said this year's drought seems to be isolated to southern portions of the Midwest. The worst effects seem to be in Missouri, he added.
During the most critical part of the row-crop growing season in June and July, high pressure sat over most of Kansas and Missouri, which pushed thunderstorms to the north into parts of Nebraska and Iowa. These fronts seemed to slump off into southeastern Missouri.
"There's basically no drought issues across Illinois and Indiana," Fuchs said. "Unlike 2012 where the drought was widespread all over the Midwest, it's really localized."
Farmers are feeling the effects of this summer's drought. This year, many areas around Jefferson City have received 2-4 inches less precipitation than normal, according to NWS data. Fields started the growing season off in a precipitation deficit because the soil did not get replenished by snowstorms over the winter.
Jameson Morrow, who farms cattle south of Jefferson City, tries to rotate his herds between pastures to let pastures grow as much as possible. With the lack of rain, grasses on his pastureland have struggled to grow this summer, Morrow said. He said grass usually does about two-thirds of its growing in the spring and one-third in the fall.
"The grass just didn't get a chance to get a head start like it usually does," he said. "There's just no moisture."
Many farmers around Missouri began feeding cattle hay much earlier than normal this summer. Morrow began feeding his herds hay in July, the first time he ever had to feed hay that early.
In 2012, Morrow said, early rains allowed farmers to gather a hay crop before the drought hit in the summer. Because of the winter drought, cattle farmers had to keep feeding animals hay, though.
"We didn't have a chance to get hay like a normal year," Morrow said. "We were overcoming a year where people had to feed hay for months more than they normally would, so we didn't have any reserves."
Gov. Mike Parson announced plans Monday to open a hay lottery to farmers to gather hay from 900 acres on state land, including at Rock Bridge Rock Bridge Memorial State Park in Columbia and at Ha Ha Tonka State Park near Camdenton. Parson also announced the state will allow livestock farmers to pump up to 5,000 gallons of water per day from 28 conservation areas and five state parks.
Water access is not an issue for Morrow because several county water supplies sit near his farms. For smaller farms that rely on creeks for water supplies, though, he said access to water for herds is becoming an issue.
Morrow applied for the hay lottery but thinks its impact will be small. Haying will be done at just 15 locations statewide. Cattle farmers across the region may need to start looking for other sources of feed like corn silage and corn stalks, he said.
"The feed value of hay (from state land) is so low," Morrow said. "It's better than nothing."