News

Winter feed quality concerns

There are winter feed quality concerns in the Upper Midwest.

Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Association president Jake Thompson says there was a lot of moisture this spring, but the summer was dry.

“So from the cattle perspective when we’re looking at it, we had pastures that performed well (and) had a lot of forage produced. But we struggled to get a higher-quality forage, and I think that was a pretty common theme across the state.”

The Barnesville cow-calf producer tells Brownfield the lower quality forage means having to supplement more protein.

“We have enough for our bull development and things like that we’re doing on the farm. And dried distillers itself is pretty important in our rations, so we’re going to have to supplement that on the feeder calves and stuff.”

Thompson says there’s a large quantity of mediocre hay this year.