 Hi, I'm Miranda Meehan, the NDSU Extension Livestock Environmental Stewardship Specialist. And today I'm going to be visiting with you about the 2020 drought and the impacts of that drought to range and pasture land. As you know, the entire state has been impacted by some level of drought throughout this growing season as well as in 2020. So I'm going to recap what's happened with this drought so far. So the current drought really started in fall of 2020. We came to the end of the 2020. Many areas of state were deficient in rainfall compared to normal and as much as 10 inches below normal in the central part of the state. Moving forward, 2021 growing season as we moved into that is that fall deficiency in rain actually reduced potential for forage production because our cool season grasses that we have here in North Dakota start to develop their tiller in the fall before the next growing season. Many of our grasses aborted that tiller last fall and so they had to start growth over the spring and that really resulted in a reduction in our forage production potential. And on top of that, the deficiency in rain continued through the critical time for forage growth in North Dakota, which is April one through June 30th. By the end of July, much of the state was reporting a 50 to 75% reduction in range and pasture production with areas in that D4 are exceptional drought in the central part of the state experiencing up to 75 to 100% reduction in range and pasture production. When we're fast forwarding and we're starting to get those questions of what's going to happen? What's the 2022 grazing season going to look like? What's this drought? What are the impacts of this drought to that? And so the really big concern we have right now is we're still deficient in rain. We're up to around six to eight inches is the average across the state for the last 12 month period. So that's still going to impact our forage growth. We have gotten some recent rains. As you see in this pasture that I'm in that we've had a fall green up because of the recent range. These are benefiting, fitting introduced grasses. So this pasture is primarily smooth brome grass and Kentucky bluegrass. So those introduced species are benefiting. This should also benefit that tiller development I discussed with our fall or native cool seasons. However, be cautious of grazing this fall unless it is an introduced species because we don't want to have a native negative impact on our cool season native grasses and push them back so that they're delayed further in 2022. So what happens in 2022 is really going to be a function of what we get for winter and spring precipitation. And unfortunately there is really not a good prediction right now. Right now there's no strength in the models that we're seeing. Hopefully as we move forward we'll have a wetter winter and enough runoff to help replenish things. When we talk about the potential impacts for 2022, the one we know that we're going to see is we're going to have these overgrazed pastures that need time to recover. If we don't give them time to recover, we're going to see a decrease in forage production and these pastures just weren't just overgrazed in 2021. A lot of them are also overgrazed last fall in 2020. And so that's an additional stress around those plants and they need to be able to recover their root structure, their root growth, their carbohydrates within those roots so they can grow next spring and have enough leaf area and forage. What we've seen in past droughts is we will see a delay in grazing readiness next spring and so be prepared for a delaying turnout, especially on our native pastures. We're also, there's going to be a potential for that decrease in productivity as those plants recover from the past two years of overgrazing. We may see an increase in bare ground and with that, there's an increased potential for weed infestation. So we want to be on top of those and controlling those invasive and noxious weeds that are coming into those pastures so we don't see further impacts from those as these pastures recover. The other thing that we've seen is this year, we've seen issues with water quality across many of our unmanaged range of pasture lands, which has prevented full utilization of some pastures. So what we want to think about is we want to continue monitoring that. If we don't have enough runoff, we're going to continue to see issues with water quality, high total dissolved solids, high sulfates and so we want to continue screening in those pastures before we turn livestock out on them for grazing to make sure that the water sources, especially surface water, are safe for consumption. How can we build resilience into these systems? That's really the key is we know this isn't the only drought we're going to have in North Dakota droughts happen periodically. How can we increase our resilience to future droughts in our grazing systems? One of the keys is we want to make sure that our stocking rate is set right and we're not exceeding the carrying capacity of that pasture. So just monitoring and reevaluating that on a regular basis and when we are in a drought situation, making early adjustments to that stocking rate so that we can make sure that we're not overgrazing and putting additional stress on those grazing resources. Also, if we can build resilience into our grazing system by implementing a rotational grazing system of some sort so that that builds recovery into that system because we have multiple pastures so we're not grazing one pasture for a whole season and that allows pastures to rest. If you had a rotational grazing or have a rotational grazing system as you prepare for 2022, don't start in the pastures that got overgrazed the heaviest this year. Give those a chance to recover. So having a system like that helps us build recovery, especially if you have a rest rotation system where one pasture isn't grazed every year, then that gives you a stockpile of forage that you can utilize. Another really good option that's becoming more popular in North Dakota is the utilization of annual forages into our system. So behind us we have some cows that are grazing a full season cover crop. That's one option. A lot of people don't want to go that option, but there's a lot of shorter season options. So planning a winter cereal such as a rye or triticale or a winter wheat that can be grazed in the spring and delay pasture turnout and give you a little more flexibility in your grazing system or we can do a fall cover crop that goes in after one of our earlier harvested crops. And that gives us just a little flexibility, some supplemental feed forage, whether you graze it or hay it. That gives us a little extra wiggle room within our system as we're managing that. And any way we can increase that flexibility, it helps increase that resilience of that system. Other thing is take advantage of some of our water development programs and making sure you have good water in all of your pastures and maybe even adding it to some of your cropland situations so that you can better utilize those for grazing annual forages. Right now, because of the drought, there have been several programs triggered that can help with cost share assistance. The State Department of Water Resources has assistance program as well as some counties have assistance through their FSA through the Emergency Conservation Program. So contact your local FSA office and see what's available. Other options are just those more normal traditional ones that are always around such as the NRCS Equip Program are some programs through some of our state agencies or non-government organizations such as Ducks Unlimited. So be aware of those different options that you can utilize to increase your resilience within your system and enhance your ability to get through droughts in the future.