The warm weather of the early 1930s coupled with the lack of rainfall eliminated many of the natural conditions that killed young rabbits. By 1935 the Wichita Beacon estimated there were eight million rabbits in thirty western Kansas counties. The worst years were 1934 and 1935. The rabbits were eating what few crops had survived, depriving cattle of badly needed feed. Jackrabbits are migratory, will eat plants, and then dig and eat the roots.
Adults are capable of producing three to eight offspring every thirty-two days.
Several counties tried offering bounties of one to four cents per rabbit, but Hodgeman County stopped paying bounties at forty-four thousand rabbits when the cost became more than the county could bear. Strapped farmers couldn't afford to waste precious ammunition shooting them. Drives to control the rabbit population were tried as early as the turn of the century, so the idea was not a new one by the 1930s. Drives were often held on Sunday afternoons in the late winter or early spring, with February and March being the most popular months. Drives were advertised in newspapers and on handbills in neighboring counties.