Bad Midwestern Hay Crop Will Pressure Meat Prices Further
The news isn’t getting better for consumers of meat products, as both grain and hay production have taken huge hits due to excessively wet weather.
Spice and I were driving around looking at the first hay cutting last weekend, and we were noticing that it was nice and thick.
That got me to thinking… first hay cutting, July 1… Ut oh, that’s not good. That’s not good at all.
Hay, This Might Be Bad!
Even though I’ve lived in the country for 35 years I don’t claim to be any kind of agricultural expert. As a teen I spent many a summer day on a hay crew bucking bales and stacking them inside of metal hay sheds (you have NEVER seen hot until you’ve been to the top of a metal hay shed when it’s 105 outside, 98 percent humidity and you are covered in hay and dust… THAT is hot!).
Having said that, stacking hay in a barn doesn’t mean I know thing-one about hay quality and issues created by late harvesting.
Fortunately, the good people at the University of Missouri do, so I’m going to lean on information by Craig Roberts, a University Extension expert on the problem.
Even though Roberts focuses on Missouri, the problems he talks about are occurring across the grain belt.
The Problem Of Ergot
According to Roberts, farmers face bad hay days as they mow and rake hay that should’ve been baled in May, not now in the first days of summer.
“Worst hay ever.” That conclusion came from talk by University of Missouri Extension agronomists on their weekly teleconference. Frequent rains, little sunshine and many cool days made haying difficult this spring.
First-cutting hay normally would have been baled and stored weeks ago. Farmers aim to harvest first-cutting grass before seed heads emerge from boot stage. When stems are cut at an early stage, there will be no stems at second cutting. Hay cut now contains mature seeds and few leaves. Feed quality drops.
Getting a bit technical, but hang in there!
“Stems and lack of leaves cuts nutrition,” says Roberts, MU Extension forage specialist. Recent hay tests showed only 8% to 9% crude protein and 50% TDN (total digestible nutrients). “That may support a dry cow, but not a producing cow or calves,” Roberts said.
There’s more bad news. Many seed heads in this wet year are infected with ergots that add toxin to the hay. “Some hay will be toxic this winter,” Roberts warns.
Ergo Ergots
Ergots make fungal replacements for individual seeds in grass seed heads. Spores enter grass florets. The resulting fungus displaces kernels in seed heads. Ergots produce alkaloids similar to ergovaline, which makes fescue toxic. The most common grass grown in Missouri is fescue, Roberts says.
Cattle eating ergots will show signs similar to fescue toxicosis. That results in slow gains and lost reproduction. Milk production drops. Roberts says not just fescue but all prime grasses can be toxic with alkaloids this year. That includes cereal rye, ryegrass and brome. Even timothy seed heads contain ergot replacements of individual tiny seeds.
Ergots appear mostly during wet seasons, and parts of Missouri recorded their wettest spring in history this year. Pat Guinan, MU Extension climatologist, told of heavy rains in broad areas along Highway 36 across northern Missouri and in southwestern Missouri centering on McDonald County. Ergot causes problems, including death, when eaten by livestock.
Ergot outbreaks are scattered
“We get reports of ergots mainly in the Ozarks,” Roberts said. Eldon Cole, MU Extension livestock specialist based in Mount Vernon in southwestern Missouri, saw ergots start forming in early June. “They steadily increased since then,” he said. Bad hay has other causes, Roberts says. This spring seldom saw three dry days of sunshine in a row. That’s how long it takes to cut, dry and bale hay.
“A lot of hay was baled wet,” Roberts said. To save forage, damp hay wrapped in plastic turns into silage.
But ensiling worsens the ergot problem. Toxins are preserved. The amount of toxin in normal hay falls as it dries in bales. That cuts poison in half by winter feeding time.
Prolonged wet spring weather also affects alfalfa, prime legume hay. “Plants aren’t toxic but may appear nitrogen deficient,” Roberts says. Alfalfa may turn yellow and grow slow.
Nitrogen
Alfalfa produces its own nitrogen for growth in root nodules. That lowers need for nitrogen fertilizer. Water-saturated soils do not hold oxygen needed by microbes in the root nodules.
The even bigger kicker
According to Roberts, this was to be a year to replenish hay supplies for beef herds. After drought years with low hay growth, producers planned to refill hay sheds.
Now hay production depends on fall re-growth of cool-season grasses.
How does this affect preppers?
Expect higher prices, in some cases MUCH higher prices, for meat over the next 12-24 months.
Friends learn to love beans as a supply of protein. Meat for flavor, beans and rice or corn for complete proteins. You still have time to plant some in your own gardens. Why? Dry Beans are so cheap… Aside from learning some extra skills of gardening…
According to Google this evening some 30% of the dry bean crop has not been successfully planted to date compared to previous years. That and the flooding has destroyed a lot of last years silo stored bean reserves. Add the possibility of some nasty early frosts or more flooding late in the season the price of currently cheap dry beans will skyrocket.
According to the Bean Institute (Who knew?) a pound of dry beans equals 6 cups of cooked beans. A 15 ounce can of beans is 1.75 cups. With that in mind check out the price of a pound of beans vs. a can of beans. In my Wal-Mart they are almost the same price.
All beans need to be safely stored for at least 2 years is a cool dry storage. Putting them into a 5 gallon bucket will greatly help to keep them protected from rodents and such.
Salty I wish I could find-cut and paste that two 5 gallon bucket kit I sent you a few months ago. Maybe you have a link?
Common survival information says: 3 minutes with out air, 3 hours with out shelter from most nasty weather (excess heat, snow) 3 days with out safe water, 3 miserable weeks hungry with out food and you are dead. Prep with these things in mind friends.
I live across the River from a substantial Hay Farm, he’s telling me they are 100% sold out for the year of the 4 cuttings expected. At close to 30% higher than last years crops. Mostly to TX. and destination east.
Guess who’s going to pay that increase
Bad hay crop in New England and Washington State from my ranching friends there. 2nd attempt to post hopefully gets through.
Any more bad weather and you can bet food prices will skyrocket. Even a series of harvest time storms or early frost this fall will be it. Too much loss from stored in silo foodstuff from the Midwest flooding. Everybody is three meals from anarchy, think how EBT folks will react when their EBT allowance will not get them enough food for the month? I remember how much bad behavior occurred last year when only a few states had a EBT card error for 3 days….
If you don’t have a garden start one, if you have a garden expand it. General harvest times for dry beans is 60 days after they sprout. Winter squash 60-100 days. Between those two plants most of your nutrition is well covered. Corn, cabbage and potatoes (and other root crops) are also easy to grow and healthy diet. Look up potato boxes as they are very efficient and easy to protect a crop from early frosts.
Learn how to save seeds for next year. Dry beans easy, keep the dry beans from best looking plants, squash allow one or two of the best looking squash to max out as to ensure best seed maturity. In general save seeds from your BEST producing plants. Look up seed saving for more details.
Even if you cannot grow much LEARNING how to do it successfully even in small scale means you have a little more food and knowledge. Hope and a can of “Survival Seeds” is not a good plan. That generic can of seeds might not be suited for your area or even enough seeds to be useful for a real garden.
Meat is neat but beans and rice or beans and corn or beans and squash have kept body and soul well fed long before Safeway.
May I insert one word up there? Save seed from your BEST producing *heirloom* plants. Hybrids (as many good garden varieties are) don’t breed true.
Spice very true, heirlooms are the best for saving.
However from experience dry beans and squashes tend to be heirloom or close enough true to breed that I find their seeds quite useful for next years crop.
Or as Grandmother used to say “Beggars can’t be choosy” if your caught with out packets of viable seeds, grocery store dry beans and winter squash seeds will carry the day. Store bought garlic can be divided into cloves and planted. Store bought potatoes that sprout can be planted and so on.
Good reasons to buy a extra few useful packets of seeds and store them in your crisper or other cool dry place.