Pastures, hay fields recovering after drought

With more than enough rain this year, Southeast Missouri beef producers hope what last year's drought did to hay production is but a memory. The lack of hay and alfalfa for feed hit area beef producers hard.

Eighteen Missouri counties, including Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Perry and Scott, were declared disaster areas July 12 of last year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with the remainder of Missouri's 114 counties receiving the designation July 17.

The Mississippi River's rise above flood level twice this spring at Cape Girardeau, including a recent crest of nearly 45 feet, is in stark contrast to the U.S. Drought Monitor map of July 27, 2012. At that time, nearly all of Cape Girardeau County, most of Bollinger County and a small part of Perry County were in the most dire of five drought classifications, that being "exceptional." The river, which was at almost 37 feet Sunday night, stood at 9.53 feet July 26 of last year. The most recent drought report shows Missouri no longer in a drought, the exception being a small portion of northwestern Missouri rated "abnormally dry," the least severe of the five drought ratings.

Comparing the June 10, 2012, Crop Progress and Condition report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Missouri Field Office to June 9 of this year demonstrates how things have changed. Hay fields and pastures are bouncing back.

The price of hay doubled last summer because of the shortage of hay and pasture land caused by heat and a lack of precipitation.

The report issued June 9 of this year painted a very different picture.

"Wet soil conditions from the previous week's heavy rains limited fieldwork," according to the report. "Topsoil moisture was 62 percent adequate and 38 percent surplus."

In Southeast Missouri, topsoil was rated 53 percent surplus.

The drought left 44 percent of pasture conditions very poor and poor, with only 22 percent good and 1 percent excellent. The June 9 report was a total turnaround, with 71 percent of pasture conditions good or excellent and only 4 percent very poor and poor.

Stock water supplies, not surprisingly, also were a problem last year. The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported 36 percent very short and short last year. By contrast, 75 percent is reported adequate this year and 25 percent surplus.

"This year, I know the hay crop is at least double what it was last year," said Terry Birk, the Farm Service Agency director for Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties. Birk said he knows of two fields that produced 2 1/2 to 3 times as much hay as last year.

He called this year's rains, "Like a gift from God, almost. Some people had to buy hay to get through the winter or sell off cattle."

Birk said everyone is happy with the good start this year but cautioned there's a long way to go.

"Of course, we don't know what the rest of the summer will be," he said.

Missouri University Extension agronomist Anthony Ohmes also is bullish about the beginning of the current growing season.

"In this part of the state, we definitely had good growing weather for hay," Ohmes said. "There's definitely more hay tonnage this year compared to last year."

The rain has helped in other ways.

"Along with the good hay crop, we have good pasture [conditions]," Birk said. "As far as the field situation for the cattle person, it's as good right now as it been for the last couple of years."

Ohmes agreed current conditions are a huge improvement.

"We lost a lot of pastures last year," he said. "They just flat-out died. We went into this year with thinner pastures."

Not everything is coming up roses in all areas, though. According to agweb.com, as of May 1, on-farm hay stocks nationally of 14.16 million tons fell to record-breaking low levels. Much of the problem is in the Upper Midwest, where hay stocks are 34 percent less than a year ago.

"Further south, however, pasture conditions have improved," Rob Kallenbach, Missouri University's forage specialist, told agweb.com. "Missouri pastures that were yielding 70 pounds of dry matter per acre per day during the first week of May were producing twice that a week later."

Ohmes said some problems carried over from last year.

"We had a few more weed issues this year," he said. "The fields were more open, less competition from grass."

Ohmes said it hasn't been a huge problem.

Last year's drought also forced farmers to convert some field to warm-weather annuals, Ohmes said.

"The drought extended well into the fall," he said. "The standard is you have a natural thinning out in summer due to heat. Last year, we flat-out had hay fields and pastures dying."

Ohmes said warm-weather annuals worked fine, but farmers hope to continue to receive sufficient moisture this summer to resume a normal planting cycle.

Beef cattle operations are important to the Missouri farm economy. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service 2010 rankings, Missouri was second in the nation in beef cow operations and third in the number of beef cows. The service's statistics for the same year showed Cape Girardeau County with 18,500 head of beef cows and 45,500 head of all cattle and calves. Bollinger County's numbers were 17,200 and 30,000 head, respectively, while Perry County had 15,600 head of beef cows and 34,500 head of all cattle and calves.

Included in Cape Girardeau County's numbers were 2,000 head of dairy cattle. Perry County had 1,100 head, while the number was negligible in Bollinger County.

Birk said reports of cattle herds being sold last year were somewhat overblown.

"There were some people who sold some cattle," he said. "It wasn't like one-half of the cattle were sold or even one-fourth of the cattle."

While Birk admitted it's not an ideal situation, he said beef producers who sold close to a quarter of their herds culled out the weakest animals, leaving producers with their best cattle.

He said the biggest difference between dairy cows and beef cattle is dairy cows "consume a lot more grain than the beef cattle. They need to eat corn, corn silage, dried distilled grain, corn gluten and soybean pellets, which is mostly purchased. It's a higher-priced feed. The price of feed affects dairy farmers more than beef cattle producers."

While feed supplies -- mostly hay and alfalfa -- are back to normal for beef producers, Birk said profitability remains a problem. High fuel prices, machinery costs and the high price of hay equipment all are continuing problems, he said.

jpulliam@semissourian.com

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