Drought Destroys Crops, Livelihoods

L A M A R, Colo., May 18, 2002 -- John Stulp, a wheat farmer, is harvesting dirt.

"We had to come out here with a chisel and chisel up these dirt clods, bring them up on the surface to keep the topsoil from blowing around," he says.

Stulp, like hundreds of other farmers and ranchers, is trying to keep history from repeating itself. This High Plains community in southeastern Colorado was the heart of the 1930s Dust Bowl, and conditions today are every bit as dry as they were 70 years ago.

Chiseling up the clods of dirt holds down the dust and keeps it from blowing away. Stulp says his farm hasn't received any measurable rain in nearly a year and he's already lost his winter wheat crop.

In the nearby Arkansas River Valley, corn farmer Bob Wilger is confronted with the same problem: no water. The Amity Canal, built in 1860, usually carries runoff from melted mountain snow, but this year it has delivered only one "run."

Wilger will probably not raise corn this summer and will harvest only one cutting of hay.

"I'm not sure how we'll get through it all, " he says. "We'll find a way, but I don't know how it will all come about."

Farmers Already Struggling Under Debt

Government loans, crop insurance and subsidies are a solution, but agricultural officials say a lot of farmers are already in debt and don't want to incur more.

"Everyone's going to hurt before this is over," says Chad Hart, the USDA Farm Service Agency representative here. "But I don't think people are going to want more loans to survive because they've already got more than enough debt."

Local farm supplies dealer Craig Schomaker says his John Deere tractor and harvester dealership is suffering as a result.

"The impact has mostly been on parts and service because the guys are not out running their equipment in the field," he says. "They're not breaking down, they're not needing oil, they're not needing the basics."

Cattle ranchers also are feeling the pinch. In La Junta, Colo., the Winter Livestock Sales Barn is auctioning off 8,000 head of cattle every week. Ranchers who have no water and in effect no grazing land are selling their cows to other ranchers from states where water and feed are more plentiful.

Gordon Lambath fights back a tear as he watches 65 head, mostly mothers and their calves, being sold.

"I've been in this area for 22 years and I've never seen it this bad," he says. "It's very, very depressing but there's nothing we can do about it."

It appears that the Dust Bowl 70 years later is just as dry as it was in the 1930s, and just as hard on those who depend on the land and the water for their livelihood.