[ti:US Farmers Struggle With Drought] [ar:Jim Tedder] [al:Agriculture Report] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. [00:09.10]A drought across much of the United States [00:13.02]is forcing farmers to make difficult decisions. [00:18.06]Damage to corn and soybeans is already severe [00:20.23]in the hardest-hit areas. [00:25.09]Alan Bowers Junior is a farmer in the state of Illinois [00:26.14]in the Midwest. [00:28.25]ALAN BOWERS JR.: "You get up in the morning, [00:32.30]and you think it might be another thirteen months [00:33.98]before we get a paycheck. [00:38.08]The corn and soybean crop is our paycheck." [00:40.51]The corn on his farm is so dry, [00:44.37]the stalks break apart just by touching them. [00:49.78]The maize is unusable. So in the middle of July, [00:53.01]Alan Bowers decided to cut down his crop [00:54.94]to avoid a total loss. [00:57.41]ALAN BOWERS JR.: "We are making what they call [01:00.14]corn silage out of this for the animals, for the cows. [01:03.07]And if you wait till it's completely dried up, [01:05.93]it won't even make suitable feed for the animals." [01:07.98]Alan Bowers and his wife, Lori, [01:11.34]are hoping for a small insurance settlement [01:14.08]to help them pay their bills until next year. [01:16.19]LORI BOWERS: "People don't realize we have no boss [01:17.62]and we have nobody to help us. [01:20.18]And it's tough. You have to work together. [01:21.79]You have to work with a husband and a wife [01:25.84]and family, and together try to work through it." [01:28.32]The Bowers could also lose their soybeans [01:30.19]to the record high temperatures [01:33.11]and lack of rain in the worst drought [01:34.79]in more than half a century. [01:37.28]And Alan Bowers says [01:39.65]if next year is anything like this, [01:42.94]the farm itself may not survive. [01:47.98]The farm has been in his family for four generations. [01:51.22]The drought is reducing the depth [01:54.76]of the Mississippi River, the nation's longest [01:57.87]and most economically important waterway. [02:02.60]Last year, heavy rains flooded the banks [02:04.78]along parts of the Mississippi. [02:08.08]This year, the level is so low, [02:11.56]shipwrecks normally hidden underwater [02:13.36]can be clearly seen. [02:17.28]Jasen Brown is a hydraulic engineer [02:20.08]with the Army Corps of Engineers. [02:22.20]JASEN BROWN: "So there's a lot of money at stake [02:24.40]for these farmers, and there's other commodities [02:25.96]that are coming down the river as well. [02:28.20]It's not just grain, but it's also [02:31.06]some chemicals that are coming down the river. [02:33.05]Coal is coming down the river. [02:34.48]Various different things like that." [02:36.97]Sixty percent of all grain [02:38.96]exported from the United States [02:42.32]travels on barges along the Mississippi. [02:46.05]An Army Corps of Engineers survey ship [02:50.22]called the MV Pathfinder looks for places [02:53.08]along the river that are not deep enough [02:57.31]for traffic. Crews then either dredge the sites [03:00.36]to make them deeper or mark them [03:04.40]with warning buoys. Terry Bequette, [03:06.83]the ship's captain, says companies [03:08.94]have to lighten the loads of [03:11.56]their barges when the water level is low. [03:13.30]TERRY BEQUETTE: "It's low and it's bad, [03:15.29]but it's not the end-of-the-world bad. [03:18.46]The industry just lightens their loads [03:20.76]and hopes for the best." [03:24.12]A new American Meteorological Society study [03:28.42]links climate change to a drought last year in Texas [03:32.02]and some other extreme weather events. [03:35.20]Natural conditions played a part. [03:38.18]But the study found that human activity [03:41.79]made the Texas drought twenty times [03:45.03]more likely than in the nineteen sixties. [03:50.19]And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. [03:53.36]To read and listen to more stories [03:59.84]for people learning English, go to voa.com. [00:00.00]I'm Jim Tedder.