Video News Story: Texas Cattle Ranchers Struggle With Drought Conditions.

[joedales]

Interesting news story that I thought people might be interested in.

[grassfarmer]

Maybe not as severe as Texas but my area of central Alberta is also in a drought situation when most of the talk on the prairies is of excess rainfall.
Our average summer rainfall would be over 15 inches by now and we've only had 7. Wetland areas and sloughs are dryer now than in '02,'03 or '09 which were the driest years recorded since Europeans settled here.
Our water levels are likely at their lowest point since that time - meanwhile the area is being blanket fracked using several million gallons of fresh water per well - can anyone see a problem?

[Happytrails]

Re fracking GF says "several million gallons of fresh water per well". Is that hyperbole? If not what are the logistics. It takes 200 tankers to haul a million gallons. Of course water flooding is a different issue.

[grassfarmer]

It is generally accepted that 2-8 million gallons is used per well fracked. You can check various sources for that.
A lot is trucked hence they are completely rebuilding HWY 53 west of Rimbey that has been wrecked by this traffic.
Another common practice is to set up a huge containment tank - imagine a huge grain bin base about 40 feet across and 10 feet high , lined with plastic then they will overland pump from a nearby lake or water source using two 4" irrigation pipes.

I have pictures of this if anyone wants me to email them or better still someone could post them here for me.

[Horse]

Gf 120 mi north of you and we got a drought payment . We came in at 71% normal luckley we had a lot of snow and early rains that got us ahead on grass if not over pastured in prior yrs. Hay yield less than average but good quality.