Dane County Extension

Parts of the state need precipitation

Parts of Wisconsin have been deemed abnormally dry by the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The abnormally dry condition stretches from La Crosse to Dane County, then covers much of the southeastern part of the state. It also covers Door County and other parts of northeast Wisconsin.

The U.S. Drought Monitor collects data from a number of federal agencies, including the National Weather Service and the Department of Agriculture. Abnormally dry is the lowest rating on the drought monitor and means an area is entering a drought and the conditions could affect plants.

Todd Rieck is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in La Crosse. He blames the drought on the heat, thanks to a high pressure ridge that mainly kept rainfall in northwestern Wisconsin.

“Normally we don’t see that much heat,” Rieck says. “Sure, we’ll have a few days in the 90s, maybe a stretch or three or four in a row, but we had in some cases a week of that and then it would get cool for a couple days and then even more heat.”

La Crosse County UW-Extension Agriculture Agent Steve Huntzicker says decreasing moisture levels are most apparent in lawns and trees. But he says overall, crops are doing well.

“Certainly it is getting to the point where we’re getting to maturity and want to see the rest of the bean pods and the ears fill out,” he says. “Some moisture during that time is going to be good. But, we are going to move into a harvest stage, for example for corn silage, and we’ll start to see some dry down normally for that anyway.”

Fire danger from the drought is low for most of the state, but there are pockets of moderate to high fire danger.

Farm liability insurance: do you have enough coverage? | Dane ...

Do you have enough insurance coverage for your farm? Insurance is only one, but perhaps the most common, tool in your risk management arsenal according to Ken Bolton, University of Wisconsin-Extension, Center for Dairy Profitability.

Although a commonly held belief may be that liability insurance covers claims not covered by other policies, liability insurance serves two main purposes; 1) to make payments on your behalf to an injured party and 2) to defend you against alleged liability by a third party within the scope of the coverage. The extent of your coverage is limited by requirements of the policy, stated exclusions and defined dollar limits. Moreover, for an insured individual to be covered by liability insurance, they must be deemed liable for the damage or injury occurring from a negligent action or lack of action.

“Most farm liability policies cover only liability that occurs in the ordinary course of a farm business,” Bolton said. “Therefore, supplemental coverage may need to be purchased for coverage pertaining to agritourism, culture labs, custom farm work, direct market stands off the farm premise, contamination of others milk by your own, pick-your-own customers and product liability claims.”

UW-Extension, Cooperative Extension, Center for Dairy Profitability and The National Agricultural Law Center have released a publication, Farm Liability Insurance (A3917), that covers risk management, liability coverage, negligence, strict liability, insured individuals, exclusions, legal issues affecting liability, and supplemental coverage. It also includes many case examples to illustrate legal concepts and a glossary of common liability insurance terms.