Missouri farmers respond to dry conditions with early hay feeding

By Missouri Business Alert via TN Content Exchange

In recent years, Missouri has struggled with dry conditions, especially in 2023. Though this year has been milder, farmers have had to adjust feeding practices to support the needs of their livestock.

Normally, cattle graze on grass until the winter season or when the forage height dips under four inches. Hay suppliers will spend the summer growing alfalfa, clover or other types of grass, then bale it to feed livestock when the fields are dormant.

One supplier of livestock sustenance is Colley Feed and Farm Supply, a small, family-owned farm in Sarcoxie. The company sells feed and hay bales to farmers in southwest Missouri, an area experiencing moderate to severe drought this fall.

Owner Lance Burk said the company is seeing increased feed sales because of dry conditions, and customers need it earlier in the year than usual.

“Seems like the last four, five years we’ve always gotten real dry this time of year,” Burk said. “(Farmers) have been starting to feed hay the first of August. The fall rains are what make the winter pastures, (and without rain) you don’t have no grass. That’s why you (used to) not feed until after Halloween. They’re usually eating pasture up until that point.”

In 2023, the state’s growing season from April to November was the seventh driest season since 1895. The statewide average precipitation was 22.68 inches, 8.18 inches lower than normal.

There was more rainfall this year, but a dry August made it difficult for grass to grow, and farmers started feeding hay much earlier as pastures dried out. The U.S. Drought Monitor reported 77% of the state as abnormally dry or worse as of Oct. 15, while the Missouri Department of Agriculture said hopes of additional fall pasture growth are dwindling.

Agronomist Todd Lorenz of Cooper County’s University of Missouri Extension office said there are limited ways to prepare for drought, and early feeding could cause farmers to run out in the winter.

“It’s going to vary by producer on how they want to manage their hay. Some of them are limited by the economy as far as not having a hay barn to store it in and things like that,” he said. “With these three years of drought, certainly last year, the people that didn’t really want to sell any more of their livestock were actually purchasing hay from out of state.”

Despite these factors, Burk said hay production is going well for Colley Farm. Demand won’t peak until the winter, and Burk feels prepared to fulfill his customers’ needs.

“The alfalfa took a hit this year, but the crabgrass got good rain early so we got that baled up,” he said. “We cut (alfalfa) more often than normal and the last few cuttings we didn’t get nothing cause it hasn’t been raining. But everything else made good hay.”