Everyone knows we’re in a drought. It seems like it’s all you hear about, especially if you know any farmers. Everyone also knows that a drought means its dry.  Maybe you’ve heard that we’re 10″ behind average precipitation, but maybe you don’t know why it matters for us and our dairy.

Pastures

Last Sunday we moved some heifers home from a nearby pasture that we rent. The pasture has two water sources – a creek and a pond. The creek has been dry for months (usually is in the summer), and the pond had been dwindling. That Sunday, it was gone. It was 105 degrees, and the calves had no water. There wasn’t much green left for them to eat anyway, so now they’re at the dairy where the cows and calves have access to the same water we drink.

A couple of weeks ago we repaired fence around the “Junkyard Pasture” because “Below Bud’s”, which I would call our primary pasture, was pretty bare. Thankfully the two pastures connect because the Junkyard Pasture also currently has no water, but Below Bud’s has a frost free water. The dry cows and bred heifers can graze the Junkyard Pasture and can come up to Below Bud’s for water. It’s not ideal, but it’s working okay, and so far the fence has effectively kept them in the pasture rather than the corn field.

Crops

I rambled on about our corn silage situation last week. We feel fortunate that most of our corn did put some grain on and overall has been better than we expected. Some of the corn (planted the middle of May) laid in the ground a full month until we got a rain and came up around June 15th. That corn is very short and just tasseled this week, so it’s fate is yet-to-be-determined.

David finished chopping corn silage (until the yet-to-be-determined corn is ready) Monday, and the bigger of our two pit silos was full.  It took about 40% more acreage to fill the silo than in an average year due to reduced plant size and yields.   

I discussed our soybeans’ need for rain in June. Thanks to a timely rain, they came up. However, we haven’t had much moisture since, so they fall under the “yet to be determined” category also. They’re not very tall, but are alive and starting to bloom. 

We also raised brome hay that we mowed and baled earlier this summer.  Many of our neighbors reported about half as many bales per acre compared with a typical year.  Our yield was closer to 75% of average, but it was definitely a noticeable difference.

Feed

In addtition to not being able to raise as much feed, prices for the feed we will need to buy are much higher than usual due to the drought. Both corn and soybean prices are approximately 33% higher than last year’s prices, which we considered high at the time.  We will likely need to buy some corn because we chopped all that we grew, and our commodity blend typically contains soybean meal.  Hay is hard to even find for sale locally, and we’ve been hearing of prices more than double those of an average year.

The drought also affects the quality of feed.  There have been many reports of corn crops containing aflatoxin, which could be passed to the milk if we fed corn containing it to the cows. There’s also a risk of our corn silage containing nitrates, which can be deadly to cows. Under drought conditions corn stalks can contain nitrates. If you shell the corn, it doesn’t matter, but when you chop it, it could. We will test our silage before we feed it for this reason. 

Cattle

All of these things indirectly affect our cattle, but the cows are directly affected by the drought’s partner in crime – extreme heat. Our facilities aren’t great for keeping cows cool (yet), and the cows don’t like the heat at all. It affects their appetite, production, and reproduction. Yes, it’s summer in KS, and we do expect it to get hot. However, we had a record number of days over 100 degrees in the month of July, and we started having 100 degree days in June.

As we head into August, we don’t expect the heat to subside.  It would help if it were less consistent, though.  More than the high high temperatures, the high low temperatures have hurt the cattle.  When it doesn’t get below 80 degrees at night, they have more trouble cooling off from the day’s heat.  Monday morning it was in the sixties, and I imagine the cows enjoyed it as much as I did.

So Now What?

The drought has been a major challenge, and it’s not over.  This something we never could have expected to face in our first year operating the dairy, but it’s also not a new problem.  This New York Times graphic shows how drought is and has historically affected our country.  Like many generations of farmers before us, we will do the best we can with the hand we’re dealt.  Over the next several months, we will manage our resources carefully and hope for much needed improvements in economic and environmental conditions.