Severe drought expands in Minnesota, threatening farms

Minnesota's drought is getting worse. The latest conditions show nearly half the state is dealing with a severe drought. That includes part of the metro, which wasn't the case last week.

At All Good Organics in Lino Lakes, Minnesota, Butch Cardinal and his family have tended to the fields for generations. But this year has him keeping a closer eye on his crops and the sky above him.

"This has been in our family for 160 years," Cardinal said. "That'd be one year after the Civil War."

He knows all too well the signs of drought on his farm.

"This part right here is too dry; I can barely get any moisture out of that to plant anything in there," Cardinal said. "Compared to droughts I've seen in my 63 years, this is probably in the top five of worst. If we don't get any more rain, it's going to move up."

Drought conditions have spread across much of Minnesota, with some of the state's driest conditions in central and northern Minnesota.

The lack of rain this year forced Cardinal to scale back.

"Knowing that we're going to have a lack of rain the rest of the growing season, we are not going to be doing much more direct seeding. It's something we can't keep up with," he said.

When the rain doesn't come, Cardinal brings it himself.

"It's a big expense to irrigate, I got ten acres I need to keep alive and watering," he said.

Even with all that extra water, the crops aren't growing like they normally would.

"Things are going to dry out and it's just going to be part of life for a while," Cardinal said. "We're going to take a pretty big financial hit and hopefully we'll survive."

With more expenses and less coming out, the impact could last.

"We need rain to soak into the soil, so we got some subsoil moisture for next year," Cardinal said.

In 160 years, a lot has changed in that time. But some things haven't for the Cardinal family.

"It's not for everybody, but it's what we do," Cardinal said.