A Montana rancher and farmer, the drought, and climate change

By Alex Amonette (2017)

(This article appears in full on the Citizens Climate Lobby website.)

This summer, Montana suffered an extreme “flash” drought and intense forest and plains wildfires. The governor declared a drought emergency in July 2017. It has been devastating for Eastern Montana ranchers. 

One of those ranchers is Todd. He and his family ranch and farm in Eastern Montana. They have about 300 acres of irrigated land and about 3400 acres of pasture land. They raise corn for silage and alfalfa for hay. They also raise forage-variety grains, such as barley, sorghum, millet, or winter wheat. They only raise forage crops for their cattle. Presently, they don’t sell any cash crops. I spoke with Todd to learn some of what they went through this summer.

“This summer was relentlessly stressful. We normally receive 12-15 inches [of rain] per year. Before the rains in mid-September, we had only received 1.5 inches for the 2017 crop season,” he said. 

To keep the farm going in such harsh conditions this summer, Todd’s family had to put in a lot of extra time. “My family and I do all the work, and we’ve been pulling 16-hour days since May. We don’t get time off,” he said. “We work every day, all day. We work weekends, we skipped 4th of July parties, birthdays, and other get-togethers with friends, and we never took a vacation. As soon as I got off work at my day job, I’d drive out to the ranch, work until 10 p.m., eat a microwaved meal, and head to bed to press ‘repeat’ at 6 a.m. the next morning.”

Read the full article on Citizens Climate Lobby site. CCL also recommends you connect with their Montana chapter here.