ATHENS, WI (WSAU-WAOW) – Nearly 80% of the state is under some kind of drought condition.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said this is the first time in over a decade conditions have been this bad, which could have an effect on farms across Wisconsin.
Southwestern, Northern, and Central Wisconsin are the biggest areas of concern for the drought right now. The DNR said this drought, called a flash drought, came on quick. “We went through a record wet period from 2017 through 2021 where we hadn’t seen water levels go up to those levels in a hundred years,” said DNR Water Use Section Manager Adam Freihoefer. “Just as quickly as we’ve reached those high water levels, we’ve responded and gone into a drought situation this year.”
Cattail Organics in Athens put in the work ahead of time; doing what they can to prepare for drought conditions like the ones across Wisconsin.
“We plan for drought,” said Cattail Organics owner/operator Kat Becker. “We plan for drought all the time. We’re not dependent like larger crop farmers [or] dairy farmers on natural rainfall because we have irrigation systems in place and part of that is because vegetables are a very high value per acre crop.”
All that preparation means they are one of the lucky ones.
Even so, the drought is taking its toll. “Our biggest impact on our farm has honestly been sleep and stress … because we’re moving irrigation all the time, that means we have interrupted sleep almost all the time,” said Becker. “I joke that it’s like having a newborn baby and it also means there’s kind of stress around that moisture that’s persistent.”
As for whether or not the drought conditions will improve, the DNR said it is hard to tell because of how unpredictable and scattered storms can be; especially in the summer months.
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