Dave Mischke, of the Holly Sugar office in Worland, last week inspected sugar beet fields to assess damage from a May 20 frost and came away alarmed.

Mischke said it is devastatingly dry in Fremont County, even more so than in Washakie County.

We could all use a nice three-day soaker, he said.

Mischke said range and field conditions are similar to what he saw when he was an extension agent in Thermopolis in 1977.

It was also dry and windy in 1988, but at least we had water through Sept. 1 to irrigate with. You dont have that this year, he told the Riverton Ranger.

Fremont County extension agent Ron Cunningham said this is normally the time of year that the dry bean crop is planted.

But some may not plant this year due to the water shortage, he said. It got hot way too quick, and with all the warm winds we have some serious evaporative losses in ground moisture, which compounds the problem.

Riverton insurance agent Lynn Paskett, who works with many farmers and agriculture businesses, said low water levels are going to make these guys a lot better water managers than theyve ever had to be.

Theres a lot at stake. Some of them are getting a little testy.

Dave Dahlsad, Holly Sugars Fremont County agriculturalist, said the May cold spell damaged about a third of the countys sugar beets. But for the crop that survives, prices likely will be good, he said.

With all the problems theyve had in the Midwest with flooding, especially up in the Red River Valley, beet prices are forecast to be high this fall, he said. With higher beet prices, the lower tonnage may bring in the same dollars with less production.

The same might hold true of alfalfa.

Hay prices should be going up with the drought, but with the water shortage, there may be only 60 percent of normal production, Dahlsad said. Farmers who could be in a position to take advantage of that may not be able to because of the water situation.

Through last week, Lander was 3.75 inches of precipitation below normal for the year, while Riverton was 1.47 inches below average, according to the Wyoming Agricultural Statistics Service.