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Farmers concerned about possible feed shortage

A crop consultant says dairy farmers are getting more concerned about running out of feed and are looking for more forage solutions. T.J. Strachota with Dairyland Seed says, “We’ve also had customers that are bringing back soybeans or alfalfa and switching over to corn just trying to make sure they have enough tonnage come this fall to make it through the winter.”

Strachota tells Brownfield once fields are dry enough to handle machinery, “Our recommendation for a lot of dairies, the tonnage for alfalfa comes in their first crop, so we want guys out there cutting first-crop and making sure they get first-crop in the barn and then getting back into planting corn just so that they have enough feed come fall.”

Strachota says growers who had a lot of alfalfa winterkill have been looking for small grains and grasses to raise fast forage. “We typically don’t sell too much of that seed, but what we have has been sold out for a while.”

University of Wisconsin Extension agent Greg Blonde from Waupaca County tells Brownfield the cold, wet spring has delayed the development of first-crop hay, so the quality is a little better now than it normally is in early June but the tonnage will be less. “The second coldest and fourth wettest (spring) in the last 30 years has really made it challenging to say the least for a lot of our dairy and livestock farmers regarding feed inventory.”

Statistician Greg Bussler at USDA in Madison, Wisconsin tells Brownfield they are preparing their Ag Yield Survey now, for release June 10^th.