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Silage holds up amid Michigan’s drought, pumpkins sizing smaller

A dairy farmer in northern Michigan says silage harvest has wrapped up for the season.

McBain’s Dale Dick tells Brownfield, “That yielded surprisingly well.”

“The lighter sandier soils were definitely down, but overall averages were pretty decent yet,” he shares.

Dick says the drought also impacted the size of pumpkins at the family farm’s U-Pick.

“There’s a good number of pumpkins, they just seem to be a little smaller than years past because of the drier conditions.”

Nearly 60 percent of Michigan was in some form of drought in the most recent U.S. Drought Monitor report released last week, including all of Missaukee County where Dick farms.

U.S. Drought Monitor reports will continue to be released throughout the federal government shutdown, but USDA’s weekly crop and condition reports have been delayed indefinitely.