Farming 25 miles southeast of Dodge City in southwestern Kansas with limited irrigation, long-time no-tiller Lance Feikert says it’s difficult to set a rotation schedule and stick with it because of rainfall variability. 

In early May 2022, it had been 220 days since Feikert Farms, which covers 3,500 acres of cropland in Ford and Clark Counties, had received an inch or more of rainfall. Meanwhile, conventional-farming irrigators in the area had already planted corn and soybeans after several field trips, a pre-watering and another water application to break the crust.

As fifth-generation producers on the farm, Feikert and his brother, Kyle, were holding off — waiting for a shower to boost the chances of success on 1,600 acres of dryland grain sorghum (milo) stubble they were planning to drill on fields that haven’t seen a plow or disc for 16 years.

“We got three-tenths of an inch of rain in late April and would like to see an inch or two over a couple of days to give us really good moisture,” Feikert said on May 2, noting weather watching is absolutely necessary when your farm has only a pair of center pivots fed by low-producing irrigation wells.

“I’m a pessimistic optimist,”…