Syracuse ? Dave Schwieterman’s parched prairie should be full of cattle. Instead, he had to sell his entire herd at the end of the summer, another victim of the Kansas drought.

His situation isn’t unique. Drought plagued much of Kansas this year, especially the western third of the state. The lack of rain left crops in such rough shape that many farmers didn’t bother to harvest them. Poor grazing conditions caused ranchers to either buy feed throughout the summer or use reserves, which cut into the winter supply.

After a dry spring, many stocker-cattle operators didn’t buy any cattle to graze on summer pasture grasses. Operators cut some or all of their cattle herds to try to make it through the winter with limited feed supplies.

“We’re not anywhere close to running at normal stocking rates,” said Jeff Wilson, Hamilton County agricultural agent. “There are a lot of pastures that stayed plum empty this summer. Producers either bailed out, or they still got their herds and are trying to maintain it.”

Wilson estimates that Hamilton, along with a few other counties that border Colorado, were hit hardest by the drought. Some ranchers shipped their cattle to eastern Kansas or Oklahoma to graze on more nutritious grassland.

A few have found individual buyers. Others, like Schwieterman, took cattle to the Syracuse Commission Co. or to special cow sales at Winter Livestock at La Junta, Colo. The company will have another special cow sale Dec. 13.

Ranchers were permitted to use Conservation Reserve Program acres to graze cattle, which saved many operations from selling out, Wilson said. Now they are grazing cattle on crop residues such as milo, corn stubble and volunteer wheat – an inexpensive solution until winter sets in.

There won’t be as many calves born this spring, and whether cattle numbers pick up depends on the weather. Subsoil moisture is 80 percent short or very short in much of southwest Kansas.

“We’ve got some pastures that can’t withstand grazing for the next year,” Wilson said. “Unless we get a lot of moisture this winter and spring, there won’t be anything to graze.”

Steve Schell has watched as farmers and ranchers over the past few years have fought to stay afloat amid low commodity prices and the faltering farm economy. The vice president of Valley State Bank in Syracuse has seen young farmers call it quits because they couldn’t make it in the business.

This year Schell watched crops wither and producers sell off cattle. Schell has sat behind his desk and listened as his clients discussed their plight.

Many of his clients had only 70 percent insurance coverage on their crops because full coverage was too expensive. And Schell estimates that two-thirds of his clients sold their cow-calf pairs because it was too expensive to purchase feed.

“Many made the decision fairly early that there wasn’t going to be enough pasture,” he said, “not enough hay to make it through.”

Rains have produced green blankets of wheat across Kansas fields, brightening producers’ hopes. But more precipitation is needed this winter and spring to sustain the crops and pastures as well as build up subsoil moisture.

Another year like 2002 could be devastating to farm country, Schell said.

“I would say (operators) would be getting pretty desperate,” he said of another dry year. “You only can hang on so long. We have a lot of guys evaluating their positions – some losing quite a bit of the equity they have built up.

“We haven’t had any customer come in and say they are giving up right now. But we may.”

Randy Levens drove his pickup truck pulling a tank of water last week toward one of his uncut milo fields being grazed by some of his cows. He cut only 50 acres of the drought-stressed crop for insurance purposes – appraised at zero to 2 bushels an acre. The remaining 700 acres are helping Levens get his herd through the winter without digging deeper into his stockpile.

He hopes the rain the county received this fall means the end of the drought.

“No one knows how this winter will turn out, how next year will turn out,” Levens said. “You do what you think you need to do. Sometimes you think it will be roses and you end up with nothing.”