Heat getting you down? Be grateful you’re not a Kansas cow. The drought in much of that state is forcing ranchers to sell off cattle or slaughter them early, according to an AP report.
More than two thirds of Kansas is experiencing a severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. That means feed crops are dying, and farmers are questioning their ability to keep their herds into the fall and winter.
The rough conditions come in a year the industry was hoping to recover from the effects of last year’s droughts in Texas and surrounding states. The number of cattle slaughtered rose 21 percent in that area last year compared with 2010, according to Cattle Trader Center, reducing the total population of cattle nationwide. This year, the industry needs to drastically reduce the number of cows killed if it wants to keep herd levels up.
While droughts are less severe in Texas this year, they’re worse in other states, including Kansas. And many ranchers in that state went into the year with their stocks of feed depleted because they sold them off to take advantage of high prices caused by last year’s drought.
Additional feed like corn and soybeans is also more expensive, thanks to drought in Indiana, which had already lost 20 percent of expected corn yields, and 15 percent of soybean yields, by the start of this month.
The Kansas Farm Service Agency has agreed to allow emergency grazing on Conservation Reserve Program grass in several counties to alleviate some of the problem, but many ranchers say it’s not enough.
Neighboring Missouri is also looking for help. The state’s Farm Bureau president recently sent a letter urging the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a new farm bill to avoid a gap in disaster assistance programs this fall.
“Disaster assistance programs lapsed last fall, and given the drought conditions in Missouri and much of the United States, reinstatement of non-program crop assistance as part of the new farm bill is growing more urgent,” he wrote.
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