HUMBOLDT — Layne Sterling is nothing if not empathetic.
Having grown up on a farm, Sterling is used to working in the broiling summer conditions.
“But at 50 years old, I’m starting to feel the heat more,” he said Monday. “When it’s this hot and no breeze, it’s pretty rough.
So he saves his most strenuous activities for the early morning or late evening hours.
He cut a field of alfalfa earlier this week, but decided to wait until it’s a tad cooler before baling and hauling it off.
Sterling notes he has the luxury of taking it easy by going indoors where it’s air-conditioned.
“But then I start feeling it for the cows,” he said.
Sterling, who farms on the outskirts of Humboldt, has taken several steps to protect his herd by splitting the animals to four different pastures.
Two pastures still have sufficient water. The other two, however, either have ponds that have dropped to wading pool levels, and filled with a stagnant, moss-filled muck — or ponds that have dried out completely.
Sterling and crew — including his 82-year-old mother Julia Sterling — hauls more than 1,000 gallons every other day to split between the two pastures.
Recent rains may have helped keep his corn and soybean crops looking decent, but they’ve done little to keep the ponds full, Sterling lamented.
“And these ponds were full this spring,” he said.
With little to no runoff, the stagnant water stands at risk of developing blue-green algae, which can be fatal to both fish and wildlife, he noted.
Sterling has had his water tested in years previously, but has not this year, in part because he keeps his tanks filled with fresh water.
THE MOST recent blast of summer has made life tough for everyone, especially farmers.
