Many Allen County farmers took advantage of last year’s drought to dredge ponds to ensure – they thought – if another drought struck they wouldn’t be caught short of stock water.
Now, just a year later and in the midst of an even more severe drought, the fear that ponds will dry up is a very real concern.
“That’s the big problem for cattle,” said John Adams, co-owner of Southeast Kansas Stockyard at Gas. “Pond water’s drying up and, probably at the most, we’re two weeks away from a lot of cattle – whole herds – being sold off.”
The drought and heat also have burned pasture grass to a crisp.
“I just got back from feeding three big bales,” Kent Thompson said Thursday evening. “I’ve fed hay in August before but this is the first time I’ve ever fed in July.”
Some farmers have been feeding hay in increasing amounts since early summer.
“Farmers don’t like feeding hay in the summer, but they will,” Adams postulated. “But they don’t want to haul water.”
“That’s for sure,” chimed in Thompson.
“I talked to a couple of farmers who said they were thinking about selling their herds – cows and calves,” Adams added. “There will be more talking about it if we don’t get some good rains soon.”
The “pop-up shower,” as he called Wednesday’s rain that produced a smidgen in Iola and up to an inch and a half in some isolated parts of the county, “helps a little,” if nothing more than to soothe frayed nerves, Adams said, but allowed searing days forecast for the next week would quickly erase memories of the shower.
“What we need is a couple of inches one day and another couple of inches several days right after that to fill the ponds,” he said.
Rain of any consequence would be too late for the corn crop, but a good soaking rain and cooler weather would salvage some of the soybeans.
“The drought is widespread,” added Adams. “It’s not just here, it’s also bone-dry in Illinois and Iowa, where the big corn crops are.”
AGRICULTURE is interwoven, by weather conditions and by dependence of one phase on another.
“Corn prices are going up, which is forcing down beef prices,” Adams observed. “We’re probably going to see $8 or $9 (a bushel) corn by harvest,” which will make fattening steers sent to feedlots more expensive.
That has caused prices to decline for yearlings coming off grass, earlier than usual because of singed pastures. That’s a double whammy since weights also are off by 25 to 50 pounds at 750, or less.
“The market is off $20 to $25 (a hundredweight) for steers due to high grain prices” that are predicted to climb even higher, Adams said.
Last year’s drought also took a bite out of national beef numbers, which left the United States with the fewest cattle on hoof this year since 1974, Adams said.
“We thought we’d see higher prices this summer because of the (lower) numbers,” but the widespread failure of the corn crop turned that prediction on its ear, he said.
For example, a few weeks ago August futures for feeder steers was $1.65 a pound; Thursday it was $1.39.
A third consideration for farmers is that there wasn’t a great amount of hay carried over. Rain shut off in mid-May and the hay harvest came several weeks early when the drought started to turn meadows to tender.
To offset the short hay crop, many farmers baled straw after wheat harvest, but it is a poor substitute for good prairie grass.
“I figure we’re two weeks from hitting the critical point,” Adams said, if heat and drought continue as they have the past month.
IN THE 10 years he’s owned a share of the Gas livestock sale, Adams has seen ups and downs.
About 1,500 head pranced through the sale ring Friday afternoon, within a couple of hundred of the largest number sold in Gas this year.
“The top so far was 1,700 when we had the Kansas auctioneer contest here in late January,” he said. “Our biggest sale since I’ve been here was 2,000 head in January 2005.”
If drought and heat don’t abate soon, the number of cattle offered for sale will climb by the week. Farmers are a resilient lot, but there is a limit to their ability to cope.
