Dry conditions worry state cattle producers

ROCK PORT, Mo. -- Since June 1, Atchison County has recorded just half an inch of rain.

But it's still not dry enough for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to release Conservation Reserve Program land for grazing.

To meet the emergency status, a county must experience a 40 percent loss of moisture for four months, said Gerald Hrdina, program specialists for the Missouri Farm Service Agency.

"By the time we meet that criteria, the land's not going to be any good to utilize," said Richard Sperber, whose Angus cattle have grazed their pastures to the ground.

The grass won't grow back. So Sperber, who is the conservation agent for Atchison County, said he can either begin feeding hay in the middle of the summer or sell his cows in a market already depressed by ranchers selling off animals in a widespread drought.

According to the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Neb., the entire region of Northwest Missouri and Northeast Missouri is abnormally dry. The most severe conditions are in northwest Missouri, including Atchison, Holt and Nodaway counties. Many producers are concerned about the long summer that lies ahead.

"It's getting to the point that some people are very concerned," said Bob Dreyer, loan manager for the county's Farm Service Agency office.

"Usually this happens in July and August," Dreyer said, "but now it's started in June."

Sperber's farm has more than 200 acres of grass growing knee high that the cattle can look at but not eat. That's because it is enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays producers a yearly fee not to farm environmentally sensitive land. The program requires farmers to plant grass on the land, but it cannot be used for grazing or haying.

In emergency cases such as drought, however, the USDA allows the land to be released from the contract and used for a limited time. The government reduces the annual CRP payment to account for the usage. Recently, nearly 200 counties in the western United States qualified for CRP acreage to be released.

Much of his CRP ground is planted with warm-season grasses, which grow best in midsummer and have reached their peak feed value this time of year. As the summer gets hotter, the grass will become dry and brittle and not tasty to cattle.