Contingency Planning

by Toni M. Wesley, Rangeland Management Specialist
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
Colby, Kansas

Remember the week of 100 degree days in July? How the wind blew 20 miles per hour or more. The spring moisture was gone; summer moisture was well below normal; and the long-term forecast—hot and dry!

That’s right, we are in a drought. Ponds are dry; grass is brown and barely growing.

Now, what are you going to do with the livestock? Do you have a plan you are implementing, or are you just starting to think about what you are going to do? If you’re like most of us, you’re somewhere in the middle.

Where we live, we know drought is a part of the climate cycle, and we have ideas about what to do when we are in a drought, but we wait until we are in the heat of it before we act. One thing that needs to be remembered is to not intentionally cause long-term effects or problems because of management decisions or the lack thereof.

So how do we get to where we aren’t making last minute decisions when we are already out of grass? You guessed it “PLAN.” Be proactive instead of reactive. You hear it all the time--what kind of plan do I need, what goes into it, when, and how do I implement it? The answer is a written contingency plan.

What is a contingency plan? Contingency is defined by Webster as a possible or fortuitous event. So a contingency plan is a plan on what to do for a possible event, such as a drought.

What all goes into this plan? That’s the beauty of it. Even though a plan may be developed that is similar for everyone, it is really nothing more than a written record of decisions you will follow when the time comes. The plan needs to include your goals, long-term and short-term, along with a set of trigger dates. Dates, that if the set of conditions are not met, then you implement your plan. Example trigger dates for western Kansas are April 1, June 1, July 1, August 1, and November 1. June 1 would be something similar to:

• Drought Indicator – Precipitation received since November 1 is typically around nine inches.
• Forage Management – About 30 percent of total annual produc- tion has accrued. Need to determine forage production to this point. How much has been taken so far?
• Contingency Plan Trigger – Based on forage production and precipitation amounts, livestock numbers may need to be adjusted to avoid overstocking.

Next add in your specific decisions based on YOUR operation. Now you have a written plan to guide you, and it is based on decisions you made before a drought happens. Since you have made those plans and are monitoring closely what is happening, you can confidently implement your plan when the time comes.

Remember, this plan isn’t written in stone; it just provides guidelines. It needs to be flexible and referred to often. Keeping precipitation and forage production records are also important in making decisions. These records will help you establish what is happening on your land and assist you in making informed decisions.

If you would like to learn more about contingency planning or would like help in developing a plan, please contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) staff located in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Service Center.

For more information about natural resources conservation, talk to the NRCS or conservation district staff or visit the Kansas NRCS Web site at www.ks.nrcs.usda.gov.

This article is also available in Microsoft Word format.

Contingency Planning (DOC; 49 KB)

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Last Modified: 08/12/2008