News

No complaints as MO hay production continues

Livestock producers in central and southwestern Missouri say the heat is starting to take a toll on some forage.

But Chris Brundick, who raises cattle and crops in Osage and Maries Counties, tells Brownfield he can’t complain.

“It’s just unreal. With all the rain there’s a lot of hay in our area. That’s a good thing,” he says. “It gives folks a chance to build back up their hay stocks, because barns were depleted.”

Hay and pasture conditions have improved in Missouri with consistent rains this spring and summer. But now, conditions are getting drier. The latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows abnormally dry conditions in parts of central and southern Missouri with moderate drought creeping into the southwest.

Keith Baxter from Greene County tells Brownfield the rains earlier this month kept the dry situation from getting worse. He baled some hay the second week of the Missouri State Fair.

“When we cut it, there was still green forage underneath. The stems have matured and the seed is shattered, but after two years of drought, more forage is a good thing. We’ve reseeded a lot of hay fields and pastures.”

Baxter says the Springfield area could use good rain before fall, but producers have an overabundance of hay stocks heading into winter.

“I have already harvested enough hay for a bad winter, plus 25 percent and I’m still not quite done.”

USDA’s National Ag Statistics Service says the third cutting of Missouri’s alfalfa is 67 percent complete, average for this time of the year, and the second cutting of alfalfa hay is mostly complete.

NASS has stopped tracking the harvest of other forages in Missouri in its weekly crop progress reports, but Tony Hancock with the Missouri Ag Department tells Brownfield hay production continues in the state. He says with plenty of hay supplies, Missouri producers should consider pasturing hay ground until the spring.