Drought Management Calculator

The development of Drought Management Calculator (DMC) has been a collaborative process involving USDA-Agricultural Research Service in Fort Collins, Colorado, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service and NDSU Central Grasslands Research Extension Center.  Funding was provided by the USDA-Risk Management Agency.  The DMC was developed to help ranchers and other rangeland managers assess the impacts of drought on forage production, enabling them to make better informed decisions as to alternative drought strategies.  Future versions of the DMC will have additional features related to herd management.

 The DMC was developed to assess the impacts of drought on rangeland which is in "good condition".  Healthy forage not only sustains the base herd but also benefits overall soil health by increasing water infiltration rates and reducing erosion.  Previous season and in-season precipitation are the two dominating factors impacting forage health and production.  Drought can also have a carry-over effect on the following season’s forage production.  Even with normal precipitation the year after a droughty year, forage production will not be 100% of average.  This carry-over effect is taken into consideration by the calculator and the following season’s forage production potential is shown.

The following documents require Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Excel.

Drought Management Calculator Background and Theory (PDF; 829 KB)

Instructions for adjusting Security Settings to allow Drought Calculator to Work (PDF; 2.4 MB)

Drought Management Calculator v.2.0 (XLS; 2 MB)

North Dakota Contact

Jeff Printz
Rangeland Management Specialist
Phone:  701-530-2080
Email:  jeff.printz@nd.usda.gov

Program Developer

Dr. Gale Dunn
Agricultural Systems Research Unit
USDA-ARS
2150 Centre Ave. Bldg. D
Fort Collins, CO  80526
Phone:  970-492-7320
Fax: 970-492-7310
Email:  gale.dunn@ars.usda.gov

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