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Morning News

Abdal Grain Company: Corn Turning Blue-Gray in Drought

Aired June 16, 2000 - 10:03 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The dry lawns and drooping shrubs might be painful to homeowners, but the drought is nothing short of catastrophic to farmers. Their livelihoods are at the mercy of something far beyond their control, and that frustration can breed, for some people, sort of a gallows humor.

Listen to this answering machine message that greets callers to a grain company in Nebraska.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

ANSWERING MACHINE MESSAGE: You have reached Abdal Grain, the boys are outside doing the long lost "It's-a so-a dry-a" rain dance. Leave your name and number so as soon as it starts raining they will call you back.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

KAGAN: Well, rather than leave a message, we've invited the manager of the Abdal Grain Company, near Superior, Nebraska, to join us on the phone.

Todd Jensen, thanks for joining us.

TODD JENSEN, MANAGER, ABDAL GRAIN: Thanks for having me.

KAGAN: Decided just to use a little humor in the situation; huh?

JENSEN: Yes, I tell you, dire times call for humorous measures.

KAGAN: Tell us exactly, on a serious note, how bad things are for you and your crops?

JENSEN: It's real serious. I tell you, we've got -- last night we had a little shower come through here that amounted to about 300s (ph). The corn is starting to turn a blue-gray in the afternoons. The heat has just been terrible.

KAGAN: So do you think your whole -- all your crops are going to be lost for the season or is there still some hope?

JENSEN: Well, there's hope we are going have to have a lot of timely rains, just at the right time, and that's the only thing that going to get us through because we have absolutely no subsoil moisture left.

KAGAN: And how about that rain dance, any luck with that?

JENSEN: It really hasn't worked too well so far. So we're kind of working on it.

KAGAN: Do you really got your guys out there dancing in the fields?

JENSEN: Yes, we do.

KAGAN: Well, and on that glorious day when the rain does come down and if your crops are saved, what's the message you are going to say on the grain company's answering machine?

JENSEN: You know, we just haven't thought that far ahead.

KAGAN: Well, we hope that day comes sooner rather than later and we wish you well in dealing with what we know is a difficult situation.

JENSEN: Yes, it is.

KAGAN: We heard about your message, and we appreciated the humor and we just wanted to have you on.

JENSEN: OK.

KAGAN: Thanks for being with us. That's Todd Jensen from the Abdal Grain company near Superior, Nebraska.

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