i have lived in the desert, and tried to farm in drought. Both stink, so I am committed to not complaining about rain. But rain seems to be all we are getting. We tore a perimeter fence down almost a month ago in order to expand our pasture, clean up the are, and replace the broken and crushed sections. Then the rains came. A lady at church said hopefully this morning ," the flood only lasted 40 days, so maybe we only have 10 to go!" The forecast says otherwise. I have never tried to farm with rain pretty much every day. My drought-tolerant plants are drowning, my grapes and strawberries are getting fungal diseases, the bees can't collect nectar, the animals are destroying all our pasture (a major difficulty in a grass-based farm!), the first cutting of hay was lost pretty much region wide which is sending hay prices higher, we lost a couple broilers to a previously unknown low spot that filled with water, most of the orchard crop was lost, the berries are stunted and mushy, the kohlrabi split, and I could go on. What a challenge we are facing this year! We are moving the horses back and forth between "sacrifice" areas, but even then, their hooves are softening. We don't have tie stalls built yet,and we can't finish their new paddock (which was to have drained surface, extra shelter, and an exercise track) until the ground dries a bit so we can dig holes and work with it.

Nonetheless, things could be worse. We do live on a bluff, so although our ground has soupy clay soils and a few swampy areas, the property can't actually flood (unless nearly the whole county floods first!). Have any of you experienced wet weather like this, and how did you make life easier and better for the livestock?

I empathize. Normal rainfall for the month is 4.3". We're around 17". And it's raining now. Our fields are flooded. So far, we've lost about 75% of what's in the ground. We'll replant what we can when it lets up. Forecast calls for rain each day for the next seven. I haven't been able to work my team in about a month due to the incessant rain. Fields are just mud or standing water. Our poor equines are holed up in the barn because, when it's not raining, the mosquitoes are thick due to the high moisture levels. They venture on to pasture for a quick bite then quickly take refuge inside. Can't say I blame them. I'm a mass of bug bites. But I don't want to complain.

Monday night there were tornadoes. When the sirens went off, my wife and I took shelter in the basement. (OK. I'm male so I was so slow to move down into the cellar figuring it was a false alarm.) After about a half hour of thunder and rain, we heard a roaring sound, then the wind went all nutty, and the pressure dropped suddenly. (My ears popped.) Ten seconds later, it was back to a "normal" thunderstorm. Reading the weather on my phone, we saw that three minutes later the town of Coal City had been hit by a tornado. Worst one in IL since 1990. When I saw the NWS plot of the tornado's path, we're were right on the front end of the path. All we lost was an 80' tree. Others lost their homes.

This nasty spell will pass. I've heard from other farmers and everyone's been hit. Everyone's hurting. It sounds dumb, but I've tried to spend extra time in the barn with my mules just to let them know we'll be working soon. Keep their hay bags full and their stalls as clean as we can. Yes, 40 days. And I haven't even started an ark.

Hang in there.

Wyoming around Thermopolis is about the same. We have had over 8 inches of rain this spring and our annual rainfall is only 7. It is a very unusual year. WE had snow all winter and rain all spring. Mud and more mud. It would dry up for a day and rain all night the next night. WE are through it now. Some lost some hay but most have survived. I had to laugh, we were cutting my hay in the rain, then we had a long spell of dry and it worked out okay. Lost some color but nothing more. More grass than we have seen in years. Roads washed out, now fixed, railroad washed out in 10 spots in the Windriver Canyon, but that is all fixed. My kohlrabi also split, but it will be okay. It sure was nice trimming horses for a few weeks, now they are as hard as nails. We laughed, the Bible says..." it came to pass " (taking it out of context) and we say, praise the Lord it didn't come to stay.

Here in Colorado, we have had the most rain in May and June on record. I live on the highest ground around and my leach field swamped out and I am having a new one put in starting tomorrow hopefully. I had to wait 6 weeks for that due to all businesses being busy.

My garden was 3 weeks late getting put in due to all the mud and last night 1/2 of it got hailed out.

What little pasture I have, about 3/4 of it still has 2" of water standing on it and I have that fenced off. It has grass on it 3-4 ft tall. The part that isn't fenced, the mules won't eat because it is to tough. I am brush hogging that and then feeding it, but a lot of it is too wet to drive a tractor on.

On the bright side, if hay can get put up without getting rained on, it should come down in price this year.

I think we're all sitting in the same boat here in the Midwest. Mike Hoffman, the Ag-Day and US-Farm Report weather man forecasts below average temperatures and above average precipitation for the next 90 days. I haven't cut any hay yet since I am waiting for a six to seven day window of opportunity, it's going to come at some time.
But everything is growing really well, so I can't have too many complaints. Just a few low spots where plants are turning yellow. Potato harvest has started and it's a bounty.
As Brian reports, my horses also spend most of the day in the barn, but that's what I usually let them do in summer when they are not working. This way they are not enervated by the bugs and are not stomping their shoes loose.
I have started building a tornado shelter for them, but haven't made much progress yet.

I always say if man were in charge of the weather it would be a mess just look at what God has given us charge over we've made a mess of it, very poor stewards. All will be well endure to the end. We are getting dry here in Northwest Miss. But we will be ok.

Sorry to tell a better story... Southwest Wisconsin has had just enough rain and we are now having nice, sunny, dry days. Just right for hay making. First crop has all been made and looking forward to the second cutting. Unhappily, the weeds are growing wildly this year. I call this the year of the thistle.

the year started out warm hardly any snow. had more grass the 1st of April than Ive ever seen, more than we normally have by the 15 of May. dry early spring April 18 the rain's started not alot but some every week, we have had 12.5 in of rain since 18 of April grass is great. some standing water not alot, sand hill's soak it up quick. look's like it is going to be a great year, the best to all of you and yours.

Been dry and hot here - 106, don't think we have had 4 inches of moisture since Steptember. They say we have had over 300 wildfires so far.

Dale, that's more the type of weather pattern I'm used to. I always hated having to buy in hay, but the weather was predictable at least! We moved here so we could farm without irrigating (one reason), and although we can get a bit dry in late summer, it hasn't been too bad. It is unpredictable day to day and season to season though. Forecasts are all over the place and seldom does reality equal forecast. I am developing my own weather radar pretty quickly, so help determine when determine if it will rain. I just have to improve on my preparations to keep the plants alive and the hay well stocked. If we can get a bit of a drier spell here so we can finish these construction projects, which will also improve our drainage, life will be much more convenient if nothing else. Last night, we actually roped off a large area of our gravel driveway just to give the horses' hooves a chance to dry out a bit. They have plenty of space to at least walk around, a few soft spots to lay if desired, but otherwise, it is small gravel. Not ideal, but better than fetlock-deep mud for endless days!